A three-day strike on the nation’s largest commuter rail system ended after marathon negotiations concluded Monday with the unions and Long Island Rail Road reaching a tentative deal.
The deal was announced by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in a post on X, who described it as delivering raises for workers while protecting riders and taxpayers.
The deal still needs to be ratified by the rank-and-file members of the five unions that went on strike. If rejected, the strike could resume.
For now, 3,500 workers are set to return to work on Tuesday. While service will not resume in time for the morning rush hour, phased service is due to resume at noon, Hochul said.
The deal will allow Long Island fans to take the the train to and from Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals Tuesday night between the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers, Hochul said at a press conference.
The strike started early Saturday after 11th-hour talks failed between the unions and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the railway. Both sides met again on Sunday and negotiated, with a brief break overnight, until they reached an agreement.
The LIRR carries nearly 300,000 passengers in the New York City area on a typical weekday across 947 commuter trains. During the strike, the MTA urged customers to work from home. Shuttle buses into the city for essential workers could only accommodate a small fraction of ridership.
Terms of the deal were not immediately available. The unions had been seeking their first raise since 2022. The past few years saw some of the highest cost-of-living increases in decades. LIRR workers live in one of the nation’s most expensive regions.
MTA management had insisted it could not meet union demands without raising fares as much as 8% and increasing taxpayer support for the railroad. Hochul had earlier condemned the strike as “reckless.”
Monday she praised the union leaders and the rank-and-file members who will now be voting on the deal.
“This contract will ensure that 3,500 Long Island Railroad employees will be paid fairly for their labor,” she said. “I deeply value and respect the hard work they do.”
“We stood firm for a deal that would not require any additional fare increases or tax increases. Period. Full stop,” she said at a press conference Monday night.
But two federal panels requested to consider the negotiating positions had sided with the union’s contract proposal, the unions said. The unions blamed MTA management and the state for the strike.
The unions said they were able to get the deal that their members wanted because of the unity displayed by membership.
“This was never about seeking more than what is fair — it was about securing the respect and economic security our members have earned,” said Mark Wallace, the president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, one of the five unions. “We appreciate the support and patience of the riding public, and now the final decision rests with the membership.”
The LIRR, like most mass transit systems, hasn’t recovered the ridership levels it had before the pandemic. The railway currently transports about 90% of the customers it did in 2019.
Last year’s fare revenue was $636 million, which means the railroad lost about $2 million per weekday during the strike. Customers with monthly passes will have a prorated share of those fares refunded.
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