As the Militant went to press, details of the proposal were not available. According to press reports, the contract included a wage freeze, along with a $1,000 lump sum, for the first year, and a 3 percent raise for the second and third years. The union negotiators agreed to measures the MTA says will increase "productivity."

The MTA reportedly dropped its demand that workers pay an additional $1,000 toward their pension fund. The unionists will have to pay higher copayments for drugs and doctor visits, but not the biweekly $22 health insurance premiums the employer had demanded.

The authority said it would overhaul its disciplinary system, notorious for its arbitrary and harsh nature.

The city and state governments and the big-business media waged an intense propaganda campaign against the transit workers and warned of dire consequences if they walked out. The transit authority won a court injunction prohibiting a strike based on the Taylor Law, which bars strikes by public employees. State and city officials threatened the 34,000-member union with massive fines and possible jail time if they went ahead with a stoppage.

In face of the MTA’s intransigence, workers marched to keep the pressure on as union officials negotiated.

A major concern was safety, which came sharply into focus after two track workers were killed on the job. One marcher, Mark Allen, a light maintainer, knew Kurien Baby, who was killed November 23 when setting out a warning light to protect his crew at the Canal Street station. Allen said supervisors are supposed to make sure there are enough workers watching for trains, but they do not always do that because of pressure to work faster with fewer staff.

Allen confirmed that tracks designed for smaller trains and smaller workers in the past posed new safety hazards today. He said workers who are 6 feet 2 inches or taller often do not feel safe, particularly in the tunnels running under the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan.

L. Corvero, a flagger, explained that flagging is done differently for different work crews, with small crews getting totally inadequate protection. "When the flagger is right next to the work crew, there is no chance for a train to stop in time." After the two deaths, the workers report that the union pressured the MTA to increase the number of flaggers on all the crews, but the company refused to make these changes permanent.

Another important issue in the contract fight was against the extreme disciplinary actions by the transit authority. The MTA conducted 45,000 "home investigations" of sick workers in the last three years and issued 16,000 disciplinary actions per year for a work force of 34,000.

Jose Cotto, a 22-year veteran car inspector, explained, "There’s a lot of harassment by supervisors. They’ll come up and tell you to work faster. They’ll suspend you for two days for correcting a mistake by a supervisor. They order unqualified workers into dangerous positions and order you to lift heavy motors, when that is supposed to be done with special equipment. If you refuse, they suspend you. The union wins a lot of these cases in arbitration, but that drags on for a long time."

He added, "You can call in sick and a beakie [boss] will be at your house in 20 minutes to see if you are really sick."

TWU Local 100 members will be voting on the contract by mail later in the month.  
 
 
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