The union representing Port Authority police has accepted a state fact-finder's recommendations for a new labor contract.

"We had a positive vote," said Sgt. Shawn Hudzinski, president of the Port Authority Transit Police Association, which has two bargaining units -- one representing 36 patrolmen, and one representing seven sergeants and lieutenants.

The authority's board of directors will hold a special meeting at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday to consider the recommendations drawn up by Robert Gifford, a lawyer from State College, appointed by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board as the neutral fact-finder for all four of the agency's expired contracts.

If the board endorses Mr. Gifford's report in its entirety, the report will serve as the basis for a new contract with the police union.

If not, both parties will be asked to restart negotiations before a state mediator.

The PLRB is keeping Mr. Gifford's recommendations for the police contract confidential pending board action.

The authority and Local 85, Amalgamated Transit Union, have not been progressing as well.

Last month, both parties rejected the fact-finder's report covering more than 2,300 union members who operate, clean and maintain the buses and trolleys that provide 240,000 rides a day.

The parties have neither met recently nor scheduled new meetings.

Having rejected fact-finding, Local 85 has a legal right to strike. Union leaders have not indicated plans to take any job action thus far.

PLRB spokesman Christopher Manlove yesterday confirmed that Local 85 has notified the agency that the union has rejected a fact-finder's report issued last Friday, covering a separate bargaining unit for 187 first-level supervisors -- garage foremen, route foremen, instructors and dispatchers.

Local 85 last year won an arbitration proceeding that granted an extra $1 an hour pay differential to the supervisors, raising their regular wage to $24.39 an hour.

The contract with Local 85's main bargaining unit expired June 30. Contracts with the first-level supervisors and transit police expired July 31.