NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's bus and subway workers' union and its transit agency kept negotiating past a strike deadline on Monday, averting a possible walkout and allowing a normal rush hour commute for millions of people.þþThe buses and subways that carry more than 7 million daily in the largest city in the United States were operating, city officials put strike contingency plans on hold and negotiators remained at the bargaining table in a Manhattan hotel.þþ``We've made sufficient progress to stop the clock,'' Ed Watt, secretary-treasurer of the 34,000-member Transport Workers Union, said at a news conference just after the midnight strike deadline. ``We will negotiate as long as progress is being made.''þþProgress on a new contract was made in ``noneconomic areas of dignity and respect,'' Watt said, a reference to union efforts to change the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's disciplinary system, under which some 16,000 warning letters, suspensions or dismissals are issued each year.þþThe major economic issue dividing the two sides has been a wage increase. The union, whose members earn an average of $44,000 a year, is seeking an 18 percent raise over three years; the MTA wants a one-year wage freeze.þþA strike would paralyze the country's largest transit system, and officials say it could cost the already cash-strapped city as much as $350 million a day.þþFor the past week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other city officials have been preparing New Yorkers for a possible strike, announcing elaborate contingency plans and traffic restrictions to help people attend school and work. þþCONTINGENCY PLANS ON HOLDþþThose plans went on hold on Monday morning, but city officials said they were prepared if the talks broke down and a strike was called.þþ``We are ready, we have our contingency plan and we hope that we will not have to put it in place,'' city transportation commissioner Iris Weinshall said on the cable TV news channel NY1. ``If they do go out this afternoon, we have the contingency plans in place.''þþMany New Yorkers had been making plans to reach work by foot or bicycle, but in the rush hour, the worst they had to deal with was rain. Even Mayor Bloomberg, a frequent subway rider, had said he would pedal his 94-block commute to City Hall.þþA walkout, which would be the first in New York City in 22 years, is illegal under the state's Taylor Law that bans public workers from striking. Invoking that law, a judge on Friday issued an injunction against the walkout.þþUnder the law, the union faces fines of $1 million a day and members face fines of two days pay each day of a strike.þþThe city is seeking further damages -- fines of $1 million against the union, doubling each day of a strike, and fines of $25,000 against its members, also doubling daily.þþThe MTA says it faces a budget deficit next year that could top $1 billion, and it is considering a fare increase. The union has questioned the size of the deficit, saying the agency had a surplus last year of some $300 million. þþþ
Source: NY Times
