WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — Hundreds of red-shirted Verizon Communications Inc. workers in New York interrupted their strike Monday to attend a ceremony honoring a colleague who was fatally injured on a picket line 22 years ago.

Meanwhile, there was little sign of progress in negotiations toward a settlement of the 9-day-old strike by about 45,000 workers from Massachusetts to Virginia.

The ceremony in Valhalla, N.Y., was in memory of Gerry Horgan, a father of two who died at age 34. The service was an annual rite, but "it had a little more special meaning this time because we're on strike," said Kevin Sheil, a vice president of Local 1103 of the Communications Workers of America. "The guys feel that a generation later, we're still fighting the same fight."