What a way to (almost) end 2006 - with an arbitrator making a decision about the MTA's transit workers' contract! And the decision is pretty anti-climactic - it's basically the deal that ended the strike last year, though it was later rejected by the Transit Workers Union, then passed but then denied by the MTA. Anyway, arbitrator George Nicolau said the deal was "the most just and reasonable" solution. From the AP:Both the Metropolitan......

One thing is for sure: Transit Workers Union president Roger Toussaint has a lot of chutzpah. amNew York reports that the union head is trying to raise money for his reelection campaign by selling things like rubber bracelets (that say NYC Transit Strike 2005 or United-Invincible 2006 - $5), $17.50 t-shirts (It's About Respect/NYC Transit Strike 2005) and the piece de resistance, autographed photographs of Toussaint during last December's transit strike ($2). You can......

Animal New York takes issue with Matthew Long, the firefighter hospitalized for almost six months after being injured during the transit strike and finally went home with much fanfare last week. Long was injured while biking to his stationhouse and a private bus (chartered by Bear Stearns for its employees) hit him; he is now suing the Transport Workers Union as well as Bear Stearns, and the van company. Animal New York says Long should......

If you're going to protest going to jail after leading an illegal transit strike for three days, then you might as well with the Reverend Al Sharpton, teachers union head Randi Weingarten, and about a thousand other supporters. And according to plan, many members of various unions are starting to view Roger Toussaint as a martyr, versus the main guy who inconvenienced the city (well, it's him and MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow). Toussaint headed......

Interesting fact about the fines imposed on the Transport Workers Union over last December's strike. The TWU can resume collecting membership dues (about $1.5 million per month) if TWU president says the union will never strike again. The thing is that TWU president Roger Toussaint has been pretty adamant about the right to strike, and it'd be unlikely he'd go for it... even though it seems like the union might want some sort of leadership......

Two times is a charm for the Transport Workers Union! After narrowly rejecting the first contract by seven votes in January, and now after their union has been hit with millions in fines just yesterday, 71% of the Transport Workers Union have approved the original contract. But since the MTA claims that they are not offering this now union-approved contract any longer, we expect there to be either binding arbitration or some serious tete-a-tetes......

Brooklyn Supreme Court's Justice Theodore Jones nailed the transit union with a huge $2.5 million fine yesterday, plus ordered the union to stop collecting dues, and the Transport Workers Union vowed to appeal the decision. The loss for the TWU could be over $7 million all told, since the TWU takes in $1.6 million in dues each month and the union cannot appeal the dues payment stoppage for three months. The TWU will now have......

Yikes - Judge Theodore Jones just ruled that the Transport Workers Union must pay a $2.5 million fine for the three-day transit strike! And what's more, the TWU cannot deduct union dues from MTA employee paychecks (which is what they automatically do now) for three months. The TWU had complained that a big fine, plus not being able to draw monthly dues, would cripple them (who knew they have over a million in unpaid bills!),......

The Transport Workers Union is having its members re-vote on the striked-for contract that was ultimately rejected in January, but there are still some TWU members who want workers to reject the contract again. According to the NY Times, the dissidents claim that a revote "undermines the union democracy" but the TWU's stance has been that some workers misunderstood (or were deliberately mislead) about what the contract included. Overall, the TWU has been trying to......

It's been three months since the transit strike and still the MTA and Transit Workers Union Local 100 don't have a new contract. So nobody should be too surprised that the New York State Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) decided today that the two have to go into binding arbitration where "a three-member panel will essentially dictate the terms of a new contract." Still, a deal could theoretically be worked out during arbitration. The TWU......

Aha, the Metropolitian Transportation Authority and the Transport Workers Union - they're just two crazy kids that just need to talk things over! The state's Public Employment Relations Board has asked both sides to talk it out once again, not opting to go to binding arbitration - yet. As you may remember, last month the union rejected the contract the MTA and TWU management agreed upon (3-4% raises over three years, paying 1.5% towards health......

The Transport Workers Union opposes the binding arbitration that the MTA has requested in order to actually hammer out a long overdue contract, so they filied their papers explaining why they oppose and offering their proposals for a contract. One of the chestnuts the TWU pulled out was for raises near the 24% over three years (that the MTA rejected and the TWU executive board later agreed to much lower ones). It seems that binding......

The MTA is seeking binding arbitration for its contract with the Transport Workers Union, making the mess between the TWU's union members and the TWU executive management a Bermuda triangle of rhetoric but not too much action. Okay, we exaggerate, but we should have known it was too good to be true that the MTA and TWU agreed on a contract last month. The TWU's members, who rejected the contract that the executive management agreed......

Today's transit contract vote dealine was at noon. And from the AP:The workers, by a seven-vote margin out of more than 22,000 votes cast, opted to reject Transport Workers Union local president Roger Toussaint's call for ratification and follow the lead of a dissident group urging rejection. The voting ended at noon Friday.Seven votes! That's almost too close to call! Does this mean there will be another walkout? The Transport Workers Union's management said......

The Transport Workers' Union executive leadership is trying to get the new contract passed by the membership - the deadline is Friday. What does that mean? TWU President Roger Toussaint launched an offensive of, as NY1 puts it, "radio ads, phone calls and threats to convince his members to approve the deal." Yes, threats! Going from threatening the city and state politicians (okay, they need threatening) and the bus and subway riders of NYC......

Besides getting the actual new contract approved by the union members, Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint admitted to a group that the union was battered from the strike. At a Wall Street Project breakfast, he said:"We paid the price in millions of dollars in fines, 10 times that for our members, and face impending loss of dues check off which is going to hemorrhage the finances of our union. But you cannot......

MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow is offering a not-really-but-sorta mea culpa about wanting the transit union to put their pensions on the line during contract negotiations. As you may remember, pensions were the reason why transit workers went ahead with a 60 hour transit strike (new workers would have to contribute more to their pension funds), and it was when Kalikow took the pension out of the contract that the MTA and Transport Workers Union started......

The MTA forced transit beat reporters to a very special New Year's Day press conference to explain that, yes, their settlement with the transit workers union was good. With reports of a pension refund to union members that would total somewhere around $100 million (give for take tens of millions here and there - the reports totally conflict on that point) and an "extremely upset" Governor Pataki (props to the NY Post for supplying this......

The Transport Workers Union executive board agreed to a new contract with the MTA. The raises are 3%, 4%, and 3.5% raises over three years that the MTA had offered a week ago; the new thing is that workers will be paying 1.5% of their salaries towards health care. While the vote was 37-4 (plus one absention), one dissenter told the Post, "We're paying 4.5 percent for medical [benefits] over the course of the contract.......

The MTA and Transport Workers Union have an "agreement in principle" for a new contract. The TWU board will meet today with president Roger Toussaint to vote on the plan. Right now, it looks like the workers will get raises of 3%, 4%, and 4% for each year of a three-year contract, and while all workers would need to "contribute toward health insurance," the contract "would not change the existing pension plan or retirement......

On the first day of the transit strike, we asked you if you crushed on any local news reporters while watching non-stop coverage. And according to our highly unscientific straw poll, NY1's Bobby Cuza takes the top honors. Which makes sense, since he seemed to be on the air every possible moment! Gothamist really did love scrappy NY1's one-two-three punch of Cuza at the Grand Hyatt (where the negotiations were usually taking place)Rebecca Spitz......

Famous British blogger Felix Salmon rented a Zipcar on Thursday and spent seven hours giving people free rides around town. That's so nice! Good work, Felix! A small slice of his adventure: I drop off Abby Russell at CBS on 57th and 11th. Now I need to head downtown, since a couple of Jill Platner employees need a lift at 5:30. Can I make it? 11th Avenue is packed, so I wend my way......

With the strike over and New Yorkers and out-of-towners in New York more mobile, we hear that stores are having some crazy sales today and tomrorow, in order to make up for strike days. Stores had to open later and close early, if they were able to open at all. The city projects a loss of $1 billion in revenue; according to Bloomberg (the news site, not the mayor, but on that topic, it's weird......

We didn't spot any buses or trains when we were out last night, but rumor has it they started running sometime after midnight? If you snapped some pictures of your commute into work, we'd love to see them-- tag them "subway" or "bus" on Flickr, or send them to photos(at)gothamist.com. These were taken by Satmandu last night and Tien this morning. Bonus: best transit strike picture EVER: napalm on 34th street.......

After hearing that the transit strike was possibly nearing an end, there reports now that state mediators have a framework in place to end the strike by the Transit Workers Union, Local 100 against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the TWU executive board has approved it. All it took was an all night meeting with a moderator and the two sides finally ironed out enough differences. While details of the agreement have not been finalized......

The strike mediator Richard Curreri is on television right now, saying that the parties have come back to the table and the union is commiting to do what it needs to do to end the strike. The TWU is taking it to the executive board; looks like they are thinking about going back to work. Some reporters in the audience are asking if its political suicide for the union to return to work without a......

No, no, we're not striking from eating pizza. That would just be plain silly. But Adam over at Slice has moblogged his walk to work today and photographed every pizza place he passed. From the looks of the picture here, it seems like he's been walking on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. It seems like he's reached work with no slices consumed. For shame, Adam, for shame. While it seems like most pizza places on the......

With Satan's Laundromat on permanent hiatus, it's left to us to gather the most amusing signs of the 2005 Transit Strike. So far, we've found these four, which are all moderately amusing-- all from the Transit Strike stream on Flickr. We'll be walking around downtown later on today, so hopefully we'll spot some more signs then. If you've got any good sign pictures, let us know! One of the pictures above by Niznoz.......

A bunch of people have written in to ask if the Roosevelt Island Tram is running. The answer is yes-- it is not operated by the MTA (it's run by JWP and overseen by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation.) Some tram info: Each cabin accommodates a capacity of 125 people, makes approximately 115 trips per day, and about 100 on weekends. It glides at approximately 16 miles per hour and travels 3,100 feet. At......

Yesterday WWD had a story on how the transit strike is effecting our fashions. Leave it to them to declare the comeback of Uggs in a "major way". Though the Chicago Sun Times will declare it's the "Reeboks-and-gym-socks-with-your-business-suit" look that have come back in to style. We're they ever in style? And if so, what the hell does the Chicago Sun Times know about what we're wearing during the transit strike. Reeboks with suits is......