NEW YORK, Jan. 20 (Xinhuanet) --- New York city's 33,000 union transit workers narrowly rejected a proposed contract Friday, one month after starting a crippling three-day strike.

    The workers, by a seven-vote margin out of more than 22,000 votes cast, rejected union President Roger Toussaint's call for ratification.

    The Dec. 20 strike, right in the middle of the holiday shopping season, shut down the nation's largest mass transit system for the first time since an 11-day strike in 1980, leaving New Yorkers and tourists scrambling to find ways to get around the city.

    State law bars walkouts by public employees, and the strike put the union and its members at financial risk.

    Transport Workers Union Local 100 was fined 3 million US dollars, and striking workers were fined two days pay for each dayon strike, though a Brooklyn judge has yet to determine exactly how much of those fines the union and its employees will pay.

    Toussaint could also face jail time for the walkout. A hearing scheduled Friday was postponed.

    The rejected contract would have provided workers with raises of 3 percent, 4 percent and 3.5 percent over the next three years. But it would have required them for the first time to contribute 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health care premiums. Enditem