The Nation - News from Aug. 17, 1986

Bus and streetcar drivers in New Orleans overwhelmingly approved a new contract, averting a strike that threatened to idle a mass transit system that serves 200,000 people a day. Members of the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union Local 1560 voted 424 to 23 to approve the new contract tentatively agreed upon late Friday by negotiators. Drivers first were offered a 10% pay raise over three years, but accepted about a 3% increase over two years in return for better job security, a union spokesman said.