A BLOW TO TOUSSAINT

A Blow to Toussaint  

In the wake of the rejection of a tentative contract by the rank and file of Transport Workers' Union Local 100, it is uncertain that the union and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority can cobble together a revised agreement that union members will deem worthy of ratification. Local 100 President Roger Toussaint has made clear his reluctance to rest his luck in the hands of arbitrators, first in calling a strike last month and later in public comments after the wage deal was reached with the help of mediators.

Given the excruciatingly narrow margin of defeat - just seven votes - just a bit of tweaking at the bargaining table might produce something that is agreeable to enough of the union's 33,700 members. Alternatively, there is the chance that merely improving the turnout - for some reason, one-third of Local 100's members did not vote on the deal - could shift the balance in favor of ratification.

Anyone hoping for huge changes, however, is likely to be disappointed. Many members were undoubtedly angered by the prospect of having to pay a share of their health premiums, but the MTA is likely to insist on such a change in continued negotiations or in arbitration.

Mr. Toussaint said in the wake of what had to be a crushing defeat for him that the rejection was caused by a small band of his critics within Local 100. A similar band was unable to derail a contract agreement he reached three years earlier, however. And so what has to be particularly troubling to him is that while members this time trusted him enough to follow him out on strike, that trust did not extend to their vote on what he presented to them as the best deal possible.