NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York transit workers launched a partial strike limited to two private bus lines on Friday and threatened to extend it throughout the city unless they reach a contract agreement.þþA full-blown strike by the union's 34,000 workers would strand 7 million commuters and could cost the city as much as $400 million a day.þþSo far the strike does not affect New York's vital subway system, and Transport Workers Union chief Roger Toussaint did not specify when it might be expanded.þþNegotiators for both sides worked through the night at a midtown Manhattan hotel to avoid a full-blown walkout.þþA strike deadline expired at 12:01 a.m. (0501 GMT). Talks continued but broke off at about 4:30 a.m. and there was no word on when or whether they would resume.þþ``Tonight the executive board voted to begin a series of strikes first out on some of the private bus lines and then extending onto MTAproperties,'' Toussaint told reporters from union headquarters.þþ``We are prepared to continue negotiations with the MTA but the MTA cannot continue to negotiate through threats,'' he said.þþA total walkout would be the city's first subway and bus strike in 25 years, and it could affect everything from market trading volumes to business at major retailers.þþWith subway trains and most buses still running, millions of New Yorkers went to work under a cold rain, the possibility of a mass walkout on their minds.þþWalter McDaniel, 34, an artist waiting for a train in Manhattan, said he had got up early to see if there was a strike.þþ``If they strike, I hope it doesn't happen until this weekend. It would be a huge inconvenience for me because I have to carry a lot of tools to work,'' he said.þþOn a crowded subway platform at Times Square, a woman greeted an MTA conductor, handed her a Christmas card and said: ''Merry Christmas. We're supporting you in case something happens.'' þþSTRIKE ILLEGALþþA walkout would be illegal, violating a state law that prohibits strikes by municipal employees, and stiff penalties could be handed down to union members by the courts.þþMayor Michael Bloomberg has estimated the economic impact at the height of the holiday shopping season would be $400 million a day. An 11-day strike of buses and subways in 1980 cost the nation's most populous city more than $1 billion.þþThe city has drawn up contingency measures including strict car-pooling rules, a ban on trucks during morning rush hour and closing certain major streets for emergency vehicles. Businesses were encouraged to let employees work from home.þþMTA Chairman Peter Kalikow urged the union to submit to independent arbitration if negotiations fail but union chief Toussaint said on Thursday his recommendation to union members ''will definitely not be arbitration.''þþMajor issues include wage increases, health-care benefits and pension provisions, which the union believes are affordable, pointing to a reported $1 billion surplus held by the MTA based largely on increased value of its real estate holdings.þþBut Kalikow said on Thursday: ``The MTA's long-term financial outlook, like every business and government in this country, is seriously clouded by the extraordinary growth of pensions and health-care costs.''þþ
Source: NY Times
