By Jesse Russell

On the heels of their President leaving jail, the New York City Transport Workers Union has filed a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Transit Authority. The suit targets the MTA for its refusal to consider a contract agreement that the transit workers voted to accept. It is the same contract that failed earlier this year. The MTA says that the contract should be settled by binding arbitration. The lawsuit sites previous years in which a contract was first voted down and then later passed and ratified by the MTA - 1978, 1985 and 1999. Last month a judge fined the union $2.5 million dollars and sentenced Toussaint to 10-days in jail for engaging in a Christmas week strike.