Transit worker strike brings NYC to a halt
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-21 13:58

The International TWU, the union's parent, had urged the local not to go on strike. Its president, Michael O'Brien, reiterated Tuesday that the striking workers were legally obligated to resume working. The only way to a contract, he said, is "not by strike but continued negotiation."

The first day of the strike was expected to cost the city $400 million in revenue, with an additional loss of $300 million per day afterward, according to the city comptroller's office. Countless stores and restaurants were affected.

The mayor put into effect a sweeping emergency plan, including a requirement that cars entering Manhattan below 96th Street have at least four occupants.

Lorraine Hall came to New York expecting a lighthearted celebration of her 65th birthday, but the lack of mass transit put a damper on the occasion. She was determined to make the best of it until her departure on Friday.

"I didn't come up here to sit in a hotel room, and as long as my two feet are letting me push it, I'm going to push it," said Hall, who lives in Lancaster, S.C.

The union said the latest MTA offer included annual raises of 3 percent, 4 percent and 3.5 percent. Pensions were another major sticking point in the talks, particularly involving new employees.

"Were it not for the pension piece, we would not be out on strike," union President Roger Toussaint said Tuesday in an interview with the New York-based all-news channel NY1. "All it needs to do is take its pension proposal off the table."

The contract expired Friday at midnight, but the two sides had continued talking through the weekend.