A hint of early settlement in New York transit strike

Hope of an early end to one of the twin strikes tying up New York's mass-transit systems emerged Wednesday when a leader of strikers against the Long Island Rail Road said he would order his men back to work later in the day. Monitor correspondent Ward Morehouse III says the strikers are returning to work for the Easter and Passover holiday season, but will go back out again on Monday if an agreement cannot be reched. The strikers would, however, obey a back-to-work order from a federal mediator.

John Mahoney of the Teamsters Union, which controls track maintenance men, said he had ordered the return for 3 p.m. eastern standard time Wednesday.

The Teamsters are technically the only union on strike against the Long Island, a major commuter line. Five other unions involved are merely honoring picket lines. (See related story, Page 5.)