May Rule by December
TWU Arbitration Is Down to the Briefs

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

The ongoing contract dispute between Transport Workers' Union Local 100 and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority moved one step closer to resolution last week with the conclusion of the trial portion of impasse proceedings.

GEORGE NICOLAU: Some old issues revived.

George Nicolau, chairman of the Public Employment Relations Board panel holding arbitration hearings, announced Oct. 3 that it had concluded its evidentiary hearings. He instructed both parties to deliver final briefs to him by Nov. 15.

Pact By Year's End?

He said he hoped to reach a resolution relatively quickly, but wouldn't attach a definite timetable beyond noting that [PERB] "usually give[s] arbitrators 30 days or a little bit less" to reach an accord.

A decision is unlikely to be issued in time to give Local 100 President Roger Toussaint a finalized contract to campaign with in the union's upcoming elections. Ballots go out Nov. 20 and are due back Dec. 15. Mr. Toussaint faces challenges from three slates whose presidential candidates have pointed to the lack of a contract as a reason to elect new leadership for the next round of bargaining.

But Mr. Nicolau said he would not be moved by the union's timeline.

"I am not paying attention to that at all. It's a question of when briefs come in and how the panel proceeds," he said.

The veteran arbitrator added that he's involved in the integration of pilots from two major airlines that recently merged. That mediation, which will begin in earnest in December and January, will involve hearings in Arizona, Washington D.C., and New York.

To Exclude Some Issues

Mr. Nicolau, along with MTA chief negotiator Gary J. Dellaverson and Local 100 labor counsel Basil A. Paterson, began hearing presentations from Local 100 and the MTA in August.

Both Local 100 and the MTA last month agreed to set aside requests to have a separate PERB hearing to decide which contract issues were considered outside the scope of bargaining. Mr. Nicolau said the panel will be deciding which issues can and can't be included in the settlement as part of its final deliberations.

"Each party has put a lot of things back on the table that aren't in the [post-strike] tentative agreement, and so they each have raised lots of scope issues," he said. "But the parties have left it up to the panel to decide."

The briefs will contain final demands and counter-demands from Local 100 and the MTA, along with scope arguments for and against specific issues being included in the impasse settlement.

Petition Judge on Pact

Local 100 had also filed court papers seeking a declaratory statement from Brooklyn State Supreme Court Justice Theodore T. Jones that the MTA's post-strike contract deal was still valid, even though it was rejected by seven ballots in January.

Union members later approved the deal by a wide margin during a second vote, but MTA Chairman Peter S. Kalikow, stating at a board meeting that the union leadership had no right to force those exact terms down the agency's throat, refused to honor the offer.

Local 100 lawyers attempted to judicially circumvent Mr. Kalikow, but failed. Judge Jones ruled Aug. 10 that the question of the contract's validity must be settled outside the courts.

The union filed a similar request for a declaratory statement from PERB that is currently being held in abeyance at the agreement of both parties. While Local 100 lawyers haven't pushed for an answer, preferring instead to await the results of arbitration, they could renew their call for clarification of the deal's status if they are unhappy with the final settlement.