Comnmuters walk across the Brooklyn Bridge early yesterday in New York. (Photo: Xinhua/Reuters)

A sign reading 'closed' hangs on chained entrance way of an upper eastside subway station in New York yesterday. -Xinhua

New York's Transport Workers Union (TWU) announced in New York yesterday the start of a citywide transit strike that shut down the largest transit system in the United States after a breakdown in negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

After five days of intensive contract talks between the MTA and the TWU, MTA spokesman Tom Kelly told a press conference that the TWU negotiators had rejected what he described as a "fair" final offer by the MTA, and departed for the union's headquarters to vote on a work stoppage that would strand many of the city's 7 million commuters.

The negotiations broke down after continuing for nearly two hours past the 9 p.m. deadline that the TWU had set the MTA to present its final offer. Earlier, TWU officials asked the MTA to present its best offer at 9 p.m. so that the TWU executive board could vote on it before midnight.

It was learned that the MTA raised its wage increase from 3 percent for three years to 3 percent in the first year, 4 percent in the second and 3.5 in the third.

TWU President Roger Toussaint said on Monday that the union would agree to lower its wage demands to a 6 percent increase for each year of the three-year contract if the MTA agrees to make security improvements.

He maintained that trains and buses will come to a halt as of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday unless there is a substantial effort in contract negotiations made by the MTA before then.

The two sides had been engaged in intensive negotiations since last week and failed to narrow down their differences over terms of a new contract. The sticking point of the talks was wages and pension.

A citywide bus and subway strike would be New York's first since an 11-day walkout in 1980. City officials say a full-fledged transit strike would debilitate the city and cost billions of dollars.