Take A Mulligan!

An interesting idea for the Transport Workers Union — just vote again on the narrowly rejected contract:

There may be a simple solution to the complicated subway and bus contract mess: Put the narrowly rejected pact up for another vote.

If given a second chance, transit workers would pass the contract that fell by a mere seven votes last month, union leaders and workers told the Daily News.

“As each day passes, more and more have feelings of regret,” said Mike Morales, a Local 100 executive board member. “If we got an opportunity to see the same package today, and vote on it, I think it would be overwhelmingly approved.”

Nothing prohibits the TWU from calling for another vote on the proposed 37-month deal, which was struck after an illegal three-day, pre-Christmas strike.

. . .

MTA officials declined to say what the agency would do if the 33,700 union members — who stand to lose two days’ pay for each day on strike — go back and approve the rejected deal.

The MTA’s current offer, which has been submitted to the state Public Employment Relations Board for possible arbitration, has the same 10.9% pay-raise structure, though the raises would be spread over 39 months instead of 37 months.

But it also revives one provision — new workers pay 4% of their wages for their pension plan — and drops a pension refund for about 20,000 workers that Gov. Pataki had opposed.

One transit worker who played a leading role in the grass-roots campaign against the rejected deal conceded the pact would pass now because of the MTA’s current offer.

“People are worried now,” the activist said. “That really shook them up.