By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN EAST — The city's major transit union took its wage dispute with the MTA to the street Tuesday with a protest outside the agency's Madison Avenue headquarters.
The cash-strapped MTA is trying to back out of a 3-year contract that would raise transit workers' wages by 11 percent. The Transport Workers Union Local 100 has held events about the issue, and is planning a "day of outrage" for Oct. 14.
"All the rallies in the world aren't going to have an effect on the MTA," said John Samuelsen, a union presidential candidate, told the Daily News. "Only direct action against the company is going to convince them to release the wages."
In 2005, a transit worker strike shut down subway and bus service in the city during the holiday season.
The existing contract was formed by a joint arbitration panel after union and transit officials failed to come up with an agreement last year.
Although the contract was considered final, the MTA sued to roll back negotiations, arguing that the terms were too expensive, the News reported
Lawyers for the MTA maintained that the arbitration panel made factual and legal errors in the deliberations, nullifying the contract, the paper said. The case is pending.
