NEW YORK (AP) — Negotiators on Monday reached a deal to end the strike that stalled service on the Long Island Rail Road, the busiest commuter rail system in North America.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement on X that the deal “delivers raises for workers while protecting riders and taxpayers.” She said service would start back up beginning Tuesday at noon.
Kevin Sexton, the vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said the unions believe this is a fair deal, but he wouldn’t disclose any specifics about what the railroad promised its workers. Union officials said later that more details would be shared soon with rank and file members.
“We are looking forward to our members getting back to work doing what they do best, which is serving the region,” Sexton said at a news conference.
The deal comes years after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and leaders of the five labor unions started bargaining for a new contract. The unions went on strike at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, stalling service for roughly 250,000 commuters who use the rail system that connects New York City to its eastern suburbs every weekday.
The unions, representing about half the train system’s workforce, had demanded raises they said were needed to help workers keep up with inflation and rising living costs. The MTA argued that the unions’ initial demands would lead to fare increases.
Gerard Bringmann, chair of the rider advocacy group Long Island Rail Road Commuter Council, said he’d reserve judgement until he sees more details about the deal and how it might impact future fare hikes.
“This will be a relief to our daily riders who experienced a very difficult day today getting to work and home,” he said.
The LIRR urged riders to work from home again Tuesday if possible, noting that service would be limited.
Deal was years in the making
Unionized workers had picketed in front of major LIRR hubs, chanting slogans and holding up signs that read: “No contract. No work,” and “Equal work. Equal pay.”
The MTA, which runs the railroad, offered free but limited shuttle buses during the morning and evening rush hours starting Monday, leaving most commuters to navigate the gauntlet of car, bus and subway routes. Hochul had urged LIRR riders to work from home, if possible.
Union officials and the MTA negotiated Sunday afternoon into the early morning hours Monday after prodding from the National Mediation Board, which is the federal agency that governs labor relations for railroads and airlines.
The two sides had been negotiating a new contract since 2023. The Trump administration got involved in September after the unions asked for the appointment of a panel of experts. The move temporarily averted a strike, but the two sides still couldn’t reach a deal after months passed.
The LIRR serves hundreds of thousands of commuters who live along a 118-mile-long (190-kilometer-long) land mass that includes Brooklyn and Queens in New York City and the Hamptons, a summertime playground for the rich and famous near its eastern tip.
Most of its riders live outside New York City in two Long Island counties populated by nearly 3 million people.
Before this latest walkout, LIRR workers last went on strike in 1994.
Ridership lighter, but impact still felt
Ridership was lighter than expected on the free but limited shuttle buses the MTA provided from a handful of locations on Long Island to New York City subway stations.
During the morning commute, more than 2,000 people took advantage of the shuttle service, the agency said. It had prepared for about 13,000 riders.
Hallie Kessler, a 24-year old speech therapist, had expected her usual one-hour commute home from a public school in the New York City borough of Queens to double in length because of the strike.
Instead, it tripled. And rather than just one LIRR train, she took two trains and then a shuttle bus.
“I’m tired. I’m ready for a nap,” Kessler said as she stepped off the bus at the Hicksville LIRR station where she parked her car. “Not thrilled about having to do it again tomorrow.”
The first impacts of the walkout were felt over the weekend as baseball fans had to find other ways to get to Citi Field in Queens to see the New York Mets take on their crosstown rivals the New York Yankees.
If the strike had stretched into Tuesday evening, basketball fans looking to catch the New York Knicks continue their playoff run could also run into problems. Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks play their home games, is located directly above the railroad’s Penn Station hub in Manhattan. ___
This story has been corrected to show that the body in charge of the LIRR is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, not the Metropolitan Transportation Agency.
___
McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writers Ted Shaffrey and Joseph Frederick in New York, Hallie Golden in Seattle and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed.
Reader Comments