NEW YORK—Some 2,000 Transport Workers Union Local 100 members and their supporters rallied outside the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) offices here September 29. The workers were protesting the transit authority’s move to take legal action to block pay raises awarded to the union by an arbitration panel. A spokesman for the mayor said that his office will not join the MTA in the suit but is “vigorously supporting” it, reported the New York Post. On August 11, the panel awarded union members a three-year contract with 4 percent raises in the first two years and 3 percent in the last year. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and MTA officials claim the city government cannot afford the raises.

—DAN FEIN