More on The Transit Strike/Settlement

As always, when the story is no longer determined by the Cable News networks and the mainstream media to be an important story, the real story is written while no one is watching.

From the New York Daily News: Tranist workers stand to benefit as much as $14,000 each from a refund of "overpayment" of retirement funds from 1994-2000.

The $110 million represents a refund of extra pension contributions that up to 20,000 union members made between 1994 and 2000. The new transit contract will give workers back the 2.3% of wages they paid toward pensions for those six years - plus interest. "It'll probably balance out, but it's actually our money," said bus driver Alfred Kwiatkowski, 50, of the lower East Side. The MTA and Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint wouldn't comment yesterday, but some workers said the deal made last week's strike worthwhile. "Roger finally got us our money back," crowed bus driver Ray Rios, 48, of Corona, Queens, a 17-year veteran who has clamored for a refund since 2000. "We've been wanting our money back ever since." Thousands of MTA workers like Rios paid 2.3% extra into the pension fund for six years so they could retire at 55 instead of 62. But when the Legislature lowered the retirement age for all MTA workers to 55 in 2000, their extra contributions were for naught.

The Daily News continues in an editorial.

Roger Toussaint and the Transport Workers Union made out like bandits after all by crippling New York in their lawless strike. Those many promises by top officials that a walkout would gain the workers nothing have gone up in a $110 million puff of smoke. That's what the Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed to pay at the eleventh hour in hopes of persuading the rank and file to ratify the contract. By the TWU's reckoning, roughly 20,000 of the city's 33,700 transit workers will receive one-time payments of $8,000 to $14,000 in a pension maneuver the union has long sought.

As always, excellent coverage in The New York Sun.
The New York Post has more too.