The city’s transit workers ratified a new three-year contract by a 60 percent majority, despite a vigorous campaign by union dissidents to have the contract rejected.
Roger Toussaint, president of the union representing 34,000 subway and bus employees, said a majority of workers backed the contract because they concluded that it was a good deal, even though it includes a first-year wage freeze.
Officials with Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union said the vote was 11,757 for ratification and 7,825 against.
In addition to the wage freeze, the settlement calls for a $1,000 one-time payment in the first year, raises of 3 percent in the second and third years and an overhaul of disciplinary and safety procedures. Under the agreement, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed to increase its contribution to workers’ health coverage by nearly $400 million over three years.
The settlement was reached on Dec. 16, after frenzied last-minute negotiations averted a strike that would have shut down the nation’s largest subway and bus system. An independent arbitrator, Martin Scheinman, oversaw the vote count.
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