NEW YORK, Dec. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- After resuming contract talks Saturday morning, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU) had again broken off negotiations by later afternoon, saying they were not making any progress toward reaching a deal.

    On Friday, the MTA seemed done with negotiation when its chairman Peter Kalikow said the contract offered at overnight talks was "the final offer."

    But MTA officials later announced that they were willing to try again to hammer out a deal. However, the two sides now seem at an impasse once again.

    MTA officials went into talks Saturday maintaining that they would not budge from the offer rejected by transit workers early Friday morning.

    Meanwhile, the TWU is still planning to organize its first job action Monday morning. They say workers on two private bus lines in Queens will walk off the job, leaving 50,000 riders looking for other ways to get to and from work.

    The union threatens with a systemwide strike slated for 12:01 a.m. Tuesday if both sides fail to cut a deal midnight Monday.

    The two private bus companies in Queens, Jamaica and Tri-Borough bus lines, were recently acquired by the MTA. But their workers are not yet under the MTA umbrella and therefore are not subject to stiff penalties and fines imposed by the state's Taylor Law.

    The MTA's contract proposal offers a 9-percent raise over three years, but requires that new workers pay 1 percent into their health plans, whereas under the current contract they pay nothing.

     The MTA proposal also seeks to raise the retirement age for new hires from 55 to 62, but the union wants it lowered to 50.

    The MTA's chairman indicated that pension and benefit changes for new hires were necessary to offset a projected budget deficit in 2008.

    The TWU has rejected MTA's suggestion of an arbitration, which by law would follow an impasse declaration.

    Governor George Pataki, who appoints all MTA board members and the agency's chairman, told reporters that he believes the union has been presented with a fair offer, and warned the TWU not to stage a walkout.

    New York City transit workers remained on the job Saturday, providing at least temporary relief to the city's 7 million commuters.

    If the job action proceeds as planned, it will be the city's first transit strike since 1980. City officials say a full-fledged transit strike would debilitate the city and cost billions of dollars. Enditem