Peace Is Never Dead Because People Want Peace

And here we go again. The MTA puts out their first post-rejection offer, one that is worse than what was agreed to following the strike:

Some labor experts said the authority’s move was intended to pressure union leaders to accept binding arbitration — but was likely to heighten labor unrest.

The authority’s new offer keeps the provision that union members disliked most, a requirement that workers begin contributing 1.5 percent of their wages toward health-insurance premiums, and revives a proposal that had been taken off the table, that new workers contribute more to their pensions than current workers. It also includes provisions dropped early in the negotiations, like the expansion of one-person train operation.

In addition, the authority’s new offer eliminates a provision that delighted many workers — a pension refund that would give thousands of dollars to about 20,000 union members who made overpayments from 1994 to 2001.

The offer added yet another surprise chapter to a labor epic that led to failed negotiations in December, a 60-hour strike, a hard-wrought agreement that ended the walkout, and then, finally, the general membership’s rejecting the overall contract settlement by just 7 votes.

While making its new, tougher offer, the transportation authority took steps to move the dispute to binding arbitration.

While some experts said the offer increased the possibility of another strike, others described it as a tactical move devised to show dissidents that the deal rejected last week was fair. Despite the request for arbitration, both sides could still come together to reach a new deal. A spokesman for Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union said last night that the union’s leaders were studying the authority’s new proposal and were not ready to comment.