Walder to continue fight against arbitration award

For the first time since assuming his duties as MTA CEO and Chairman, Jay Walder said yesterday that he would continue the MTA’s legal battle against the TWU arbitration award. Speaking with Daily News reporters yesterday, Walder said the wage reward would cost the MTA $350 million over three years at a time when the agency can least afford it. As is their legal right, the MTA’s lawyers are arguing that the arbitration panel made “factual and legal errors” in awarding TWU workers 11 percent raises over the next three years. Although Walder has offered to meet with current TWU head Curtis Tate, the interim president has so far declined the meeting, and Walder won’t stop the arbitration appeal. “The MTA started the process before I arrived,” he said. “That process is continuing, and I support the process. I think we should go ahead.”