The Long Island Rail Road strike is over after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and unions reached a tentative agreement Monday to end the three-day work stoppage.
“Tonight, the MTA reached a fair deal with the five LIRR unions that delivers raises for workers while protecting riders and taxpayers. I’m pleased to announce that phased LIRR service will resume beginning tomorrow at noon,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a post.
The deal between five LIRR labor unions and the MTA was announced just before 9 p.m. after negotiations all day and over the weekend, bringing service back to the largest commuter rail in the U.S.
The LIRR, which serves roughly 300,000 commuters daily, has been paralyzed since midnight Saturday, when the 3,500 unionized workers walked off the job.
MTA CEO Janno Lieber said the strike would officially end at midnight Tuesday, but train service will not be available for the morning commute.
“The strike is going to be over and there are people who are reporting to work in this hour and in the hours to come to resume service,” Lieber said at a news conference outside MTA headquarters in Lower Manhattan.
LIRR President Robert Free said service will resume Tuesday at noon, with hourly service on the Port Washington, Huntington, Ronkonkoma and Babylon branches, followed by full peak service for the afternoon and evening rush hour.
More details are available on the MTA’s website.
Full details of the agreement were not immediately provided, but Hochul said at the MTA news conference that it does not raise taxes or fares.
“The whole point was that we needed to find ways that we could give people fair raises, but also structure it in a way that didn’t blow the MTA budget. We got it done,” Lieber said.
The deal must still be ratified by the five labor unions. The conductors and maintenance workers had been working without a contract for two and a half years.
This was the first LIRR strike since June 1994, when conductors and maintenance workers walked off after two and a half years without a contract. Then-Gov. Mario Cuomo and his administration had to step in and impose a contract settlement.
The MTA’s strike contingency plan, with replacement shuttle buses, will remain in use Tuesday morning to bring commuters to the New York City subway. Buses will run from 4:30 a.m. – 9 a.m.
Travel times were up, and some commuters expressed frustration at the delays caused by the strike.
Staffy Chavis, of St. Albans, waited at Jamaica-179th Street to board a shuttle bus to get to Fire Island for her 8 p.m. work shift.
