Port Authority and transit union officials are to be in Washington, D.C., tomorrow for a third straight day of highly unusual meetings called by the International AFL-CIO.

Both sides in the labor dispute involving Local 85, Amalgamated Transit Union, have yet to sit face to face despite numerous but separate meetings that consumed much of yesterday and today.

Today's sessions started around 10 a.m. and didn't conclude until early evening, authority Chief Executive Officer Steve Bland said.

He said none of the discussions with AFL-CIO officials and top staffers involved the contract the authority board has voted to impose Dec. 1, a fact-finder's recommendations aimed at achieving a new agreement, or negotiations that have been held sporadically. Rather, he said, the meetings involved past, present and future financial information.

"We've been going through three binders of reports, budget projections, Act 44 [state funding], actuarial assumptions about pension plans, the county's drink tax ... things like that," Mr. Bland said in a brief phone interview. "[The AFL-CIO] had a lot of questions."

He was accompanied to the hastily called meetings by attorney Michael Palombo, of Campbell, Beatty & Durant, the authority's representative in the contract bargaining.

President-Business Agent Patrick McMahon and the union's longtime labor counsel, Joseph J. Pass, are representing the union in Washington.

Mr. McMahon or Mr. Pass could not be reached for comment last night.

Also involved is the International ATU, Local 85's parent organization.

Because of the Washington, D.C., meeting, Mr. McMahon canceled two membership "informational meetings" that had been scheduled for today on the South Side. The notice said the purpose was "to educate members about the status of negotiations and to share legal options available to the union."