Commuters relieved as NY transit strike is called off

LEADERS of striking bus and subway workers in New York yesterday agreed to a return to work after the union and transit authorities agreed to resume talks, mediators said.

Some 34,000 workers in the Transport Workers Union Local 100, the city's union branch, walked out on Tuesday after contract talks broke down over pay, healthcare and pensions, stranding some seven million passengers who use subways and buses each day.

City officials have estimated the strike could cost New York some 600 million in the first three days, hitting retailers and other businesses at the height of the holiday season.

With the strike on the largest mass transit system in the United States in its third day, Richard Curreri, a mediator, said union leaders and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority negotiators had agreed to resume negotiations.

"We have requested the leadership of the TWU to take the actions necessary to direct its membership to immediately return to work and they have agreed to take such actions," Mr Curreri, the director of conciliation at the New York State Public Employment Relations Board, said.

Mr Curreri said there had been an agreement to talks on pensions and healthcare "It is clear that both parties have a genuine desire to resolve their differences."

MTA officials say it could take at least 12 to 24 hours for full service to resume on the subway and buses.