The New York Times is reporting that TWU and MTA have reached an agreement to end the strike and possibly settle a tentative contract agreement: After meeting with both sides through the night, state mediators have devised a preliminary framework for a settlement of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority contract dispute that would allow strikers to return to work later today, according to four people close to the negotiations.
[snip]
The agreement, they said, would give every side some of what it asked for.
It would allow Gov. George E. Pataki to save face because the final negotiations would not take place until the strikers return to work, the people said, and it would apparently allow the union's president, Roger Toussaint, to save face because, they believe, the authority's pension demands - which are at the crux of the deadlock - have been significantly scaled back.
Ironically, I was writing the rest of this diary while Greenhouse and Chan were writing this story for the NYT. I spent a long time on it, so I'm including it here, even if it's a lot less relevant now. Thanks for your indulgence...
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