NEW YORK, March 19 (Xinhua) -- The chief of the New York transport union presented his case to city and state politicians on Sunday, trying to convince the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to allow a second vote on the contract which both sides signed in December.

    Roger Toussaint, president of the Transport Workers Union (TWU),insisted that the union had the right to seek a new vote despite the MTA's push for binding arbitration, which would mean an end to direct negotiations between the union and the authority.

    He said that workers had rejected the contract in the January vote mainly because of a misunderstanding about a health benefit item in the deal, and misleading information from both the MTA anda union faction.

    The deal was worked out in December between the TWU and the MTA after a three-day strike, which was called by the transport union,nearly crippled the city's traffic.

    However, one month later, New York transport workers rejected the contract, with 11,234 against and 11,227 in favor. The vote was a sharp rebuke to Toussaint, who had persuaded workers to walk off the job in December but could not muster enough support for the deal.

    The contract, which added one month to the initial three-year deal to avoid future strike threats before Christmas, included raises of 3 percent in the first year, then 4 percent and 3.5 percent over the next 25 months.

    The aspect that upset many union members was another provision of the deal, a contribution of 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health care premiums. Currently, the workers pay nothing. Enditem