Incorporated and Triboro Coach Corporation) providing public transportation whose employees were also members of TWU Local 100. On December 20th, 2005 following a press conference announcement by Roger Toussaint, the 2005 New York City transit strike was extended to all Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) (the MTA being the parent organization of the NYCT) locations citywide. As the MTA is a public authority, the strike at the MTA (unlike at the private bus companies) was considered illegal under the New York State (NYS) Taylor Law which prohibits strikes and concerted activity throughout the NYS public sector, subject to harsh legal penalties. The strike was called after TWU Local 100’s contract with the MTA had expired on December 15, 2005 and negotiations reached an impasse. The stalemate involved the MTA’s demand to start a new pension for future MTA employees where their contributions to the pension funds would be tripled from 2% to 6% of wages. Since the early 1970’s, pension changes in NYS became the sole purview of the NYS legislature under the same NYS Taylor Law. TWU Local 100 took the position that these pension changes were therefore not a mandatory subject of bargaining, and that it was illegal to attempt to include it in the MTA’s last and final offer. Prior to going on strike, TWU Local 100 sought an injunction barring the MTA from including its pension demand as its "last and final offer". The union asked for this to be deemed improper and illegal under NY State law. The request for an injunction was denied. Toussaint announced that the union will not sacrifice its “unborn”. TWU Local 100 went on strike citywide. The union was joined on strike by two local units of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) which represented bus workers in Staten Island and some parts of Queens in NYC. The International TWU issued a statement demanding that Local 100 TWU members return to work immediately, in adherence to the court injunction and due to the illegality of the strike. International TWU leaders publicly noted that they believed that the strike should not have occurred since they believed that the talks were progressing, and that the last offer made by the MTA was fair and showed a willingness to compromise. Posters containing this statement were posted across transit properties which were on strike. The 2005 New York City transit strike was called off on December