We're a little late to the table with this, but, then, so are they. Just before the weekend, the Transit Workers Union and the MTA finally reached a deal on a new contract. Just now, you ask? Just now, we say. You may have thought that the three-year-old dispute was somehow settled after last December's ridiculous and inconvenient 60-hour strike, but you'd be wrong: It slouched on for another full year. The Roger Toussaint–led union kept rejecting and approving a deal that the Peter Kalikow–led MTA kept putting on and taking off the table. Finally, the matter hobbled into arbitration, where it languished until Friday. The best part: The new contract, awarded by the arbitrators' ruling, is nearly identical to the one the sides agreed on last December, making the last year a total waste. But, hey, at least it got Toussaint reelected — on the very same day his signature cause disappeared. Kalikow, a gubernatorial appointee and no friend of Spitzer's, won't be nearly so lucky.

Arbitrators Rule on Deal for Transit [NYT]