NYC Transit Strike is Over

(source) After three days, union workers in America's largest city agree to return to work.
Read TDI's First Post on the NYC Transit Strike

Local NYC transit union leaders agreed on Thursday that the city's subway and bus strike should end while contract negotiations resume. New York Governor George Pataki said that the announcement was "very positive for all New Yorkers."

Now, the deal hasn't been finalized, but that sounds more like a paperwork issue than anything else at this point in the game. Once everything is "finalized", it could still take up to 12 hours to get the buses and subways rolling again, the union says.

This announcement came just minutes before key players were scheduled to appear in court. Local union President Roger Toussaint and two of his top deputies were scheduled to appear in front of State Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones, who postponed the hearing by a few hours upon hearing this news. The men are scheduled to answer to charges of criminal contempt for continuing the strike in defiance of a court order. Justice Jones imposed a $1 million per day fine for the union a few days ago, but the penalty has been frozen while the union appeals.

Currently, the MTA hasn't pulled it's pension proposal (the one that would raise the age in which people can collect benefits). A mediator said that there would be a "news blackout" during further negotiations. But thank goodness for moles and anonymous sources, right?

Though the negotiations will still continue, for now, it looks like the transit crisis will come to an end. And that, fellow readers, is a good thing.