The 20-member executive board of the union representing transit workers at the Port Authority failed to reach a decision today about whether to accept a fact-finder's recommendations to bring about a new labor agreement.

"We had a discussion, a lot of questions came up and we need to clarify the answers," said Patrick McMahon, president-business agent of Local 85, Amalgamated Transit Union.

As a result, the union representing 2,300 hourly employees neither accepted nor rejected the report of the state-appointed fact-finder, former Dickinson School of Law Professor Jane Rigler, the neutral third part in the labor stalemate.

Local 85 and the Port Authority board have until Sept. 13 to accept or reject her recommendations in whole, but not in part, in order for it to become the basis for a new contract. The executive board is to meet again Sept. 12, one day before the deadline.

If either side votes to reject Ms. Rigler's report, the bargaining process moves to talks before government-appointed mediators. Meanwhile, the union could authorize a strike, a job action that hasn't happened at the Port Authority since 1992.

The union has been working under terms of the old contract that expired at the end of June. Service has not been affected for an average 230,000 daily bus, trolley, incline and paratransit riders.