Transit pact averts strike during GOP convention

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-08-05-GOP-buses_N.htm

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — There won't be a bus strike during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

Members of the Metro Transit bus and train drivers' union have voted to accept a two-year contract offer.

Michelle Sommers, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, says the vote was 87% favoring the contract and 17% opposing.

The contract will give drivers a 2.25% increase, to $23.72 per hour, on September 1. It calls for another 2% hike one year later.

The contract talks had threatened to disrupt the Republican convention, which runs September 1-4, if workers had gone on strike.
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In 2004, Metro Transit bus drivers and other workers were on strike for six weeks.