Roger Toussaint
PER
Toussaint Roger Toussaint
Roger Toussaint, the president of the transit workers' union, demanded that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority agrees to a second vote on the proposed contract that his divided membership was narrowly rejected. At a City Hall, Mr. Toussaint was joined by 16 elected officials, all Democrats, who said that a new vote was the best way to resolve the protracted labor dispute. He said it also found that half the members did not understand a major provision that would require all workers to pay 1.5 percent of their earnings toward the cost of their health care premiums, and that 16 percent misinterpreted that provision to mean that they would have to pay an additional 1.5 percent of their wages each year, or 4.5 percent by the end of the 37-month contract. The authority has dismissed the idea of a revote. Humbled but unbowed, the president of the transit workers' union, Roger Toussaint, demanded that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed to second vote on the proposed contract that his divided membership narrowly rejected in January. At a City Hall news conference, Mr. Toussaint was joined by 16 elected officials, all Democrats, who said that a new vote was the best way to resolve the protracted labor dispute. Yesterday, Mr. Toussaint accused the authority, Gov. George E. Pataki, union dissidents and The New York Post of purposely disrupting the first vote.