The transit union chief, Roger Toussaint, defiantly walked into jail last night after leading a throng of chanting supporters and several of the city’s labor leaders on a slow march of solidarity across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Mr. Toussaint, president of the Transport Workers Union Local 100, began a 10-day sentence for taking his 33,700 members out on an illegal strike that shut down the city’s subways and buses for three days last December.

“I take no shame in being jailed for standing up for what I believe, and for the dignity of members of Local 100,” Mr. Toussaint said in a speech to supporters at about 7 p.m., just before he entered the Bernard B. Kerik Complex – known as “the Tombs” – in Lower Manhattan.

The state’s Taylor Law prohibits public employees from striking.

At a rally earlier in Brooklyn, Mr. Toussaint said, “I would do 30 years before transit workers surrender.” Normally a formal dresser, Mr. Toussaint appeared in far more casual attire as he entered jail, wearing a black jacket and a red union T-shirt over blue jeans.

The strike and the ensuing contract battle with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have cast Mr. Toussaint, 49, as one of the city’s most polarizing figures. While Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg have castigated him for turning his back on New Yorkers, local labor leaders have rallied behind him, and at a demonstration outside the Brooklyn State Supreme Court building yesterday one union chief after another praised Mr. Toussaint as a hero.

Hundreds of workers from several city unions chanted Mr. Toussaint’s name as they followed him across the Brooklyn Bridge to the jail last night. He walked arm-in-arm with the Reverend Al Sharpton; the head of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, and the president of the AFL-CIO, John Sweeney. Union members and some community leaders, including Mr. Sharpton, have planned a constant vigil outside the Tombs for the duration of Mr. Toussaint’s sentence.

Mr. Toussaint received no such support from Mr. Pataki. When asked about Mr. Toussaint’s jail term last night, the governor instead referred to Matthew Long, a firefighter who was injured during the transit strike. “I would prefer that the people of New York think of and pray for the firefighter who has gone through many operations and faces many more before he can walk, instead of someone who actually provoked this illegal action,” Mr. Pataki said.

Despite Mr. Toussaint’s broad labor support, his own union has thus far gained little from the walkout. A state judge slapped the TWU with $2.5 million in fines and suspended its ability to automatically collect dues from members. In January, the union’s membership narrowly rejected the contract Mr. Toussaint negotiated with the MTA. Members approved the deal in a re-vote tallied last week, but the MTA has refused to accept the result, saying the dispute should remain in binding arbitration.

Before heading to jail, Mr. Toussaint last night made a final push for the agreement, saying it is “up to the MTA to decide if it wants a contract or further confrontation.”