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January 20, 2006 —Today is the deadline for transit workers to vote up or down on their contract with the MTA. The proposed agreement calls for wage increases of almost 11 percent over 3 years. But it also requires all workers to pay 1.5 percent of their salaries for health care – the first time they’ve ever had to contribute. As WNYC’s Beth Fertig reports, the rank and file is deeply divided over the deal.

REPORTER: Even transit workers who support the contract are feeling conflicted.

MILLER: To me it’s not a good contract. It’s an alright contract.

REPORTER: That’s one subway cleaner at the Coney Island Rail Yards who goes by the name Miller. He voted for the contract. But like a lot of workers, he’s not happy about having to pay one and a half percent of his wages for healthcare.

MILLER: The 1.5 has been a pain in my side but I know sooner or later we’re all going to have to pay for our medicals but I was looking for a bigger raise to offset the 1.5.

REPORTER: Transport Workers Union President Roger agreed to the medical contribution in order to prevent any changes to the current pension plan. The MTA had wanted all new members to contribute 6 percent of their salaries for pension. Toussaint famously called that giving up the unborn. William Barry, who’s also a cleaner in Coney Island, says being fined 2 days pay for every day of the strike in order to save the benefits of newcomers is no tradeoff.

BARRY: I think the contract was wrong, I think it was wrong to go on strike, pay 2 days for 1 for newborns, for people not even on job yet to hold up the city and us to pay two for one is wrong.

REPORTER: Those who support the contract see a payoff, however, down the road. Donald Campbell has been a train operator for 27 years. For him, paying more for healthcare is worth it because the contract means he’ll be covered wherever he goes when he retires.

CAMPBELL: Lifetime medical benefit that’s very good. A lot of people who getting ready to retire was waiting to get something like that.

REPORTER: Longtime workers would also get a pension refund for payments they made before their contribution level was reduced in the 1990s. But a random survey by WNYC found even those sweeteners weren’t enough to convince some members. And some station attendants are mad that the new contract doesn’t give them the same assault pay guaranteed for train operators, conductors and bus drivers. The Transport Workers Union is notoriously divided. According to one source, this is a union where a contract vote of 60/40 is considered a landslide.

At the Flatbush Avenue station, cleaner Tanya Covington says she doesn’t know how she’ll vote. She’s concerned about the healthcare plan. But she says her union president, Roger Toussaint, should definitely worry about keeping his job when elections take place later this year. Opponents of the contract have complained of his hardnose tactics.

COVINGTON: He doesn’t listen to other people. You cannot be union president and not listen to everyone’s opinion.

REPORTER: With a sharply divided membership, Toussaint and his fellow union officers will certainly be listening to the outcome later today. If the contract doesn’t pass, they’ll have to consider going back to negotiations. And if that happens, everything the MTA agreed to could come off the table. For WNYC I’m Beth Fertig.

WNYC Intern Abdoulaye Diallo contributed reporting for this story.