LIRR strike live updates: Unions, MTA reach agreement to end 3-day walkout

Governor Kathy Hochul announced on social media that the MTA and LIRR unions have reached a deal and LIRR service will resume beginning Tuesday at noon

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said not enough people took advantage of the emergency provisions in place on Monday.

Those include extra buses, which officials estimate only 2,100 people used on Monday.

There is also free parking at county parks so people can carpool.

"We highly recommend this, you can get your colleague, your friends, your neighbors together, get a plan, make sure that you get a lot of people in your vehicles," Blakeman said.

Blakeman is running for governor as a republican and quickly blamed Gov. Kathy Hochul for the strike.

Union leaders speaking to reporters outside bargaining sessions said that negotiations were taking longer because each proposal had to be reviewed and calculated before another response could be made.

Negotiators said they believed an agreement was close several times, only for additional issues and counterproposals to emerge.

While refusing to discuss specific bargaining details, union officials defended wage demands that would average less than 3.5% annually over a proposed four-year contract. They argued the raises were reasonable and not excessive.

Union leaders said they were hopeful a deal could be reached later in the day but said there were no guarantees.

A representative for an LIRR union called it "laughable" that MTA said they are stalling the negotiations.

The union members said they feel like they are being rushed into a deal by the MTA after being ignored for months.

"As soon as the games are over, the partnership will be able to do what our members like to do best, and that is to serve the region," said Kevin Sexton, national vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

"We told them from day one, 'do not put us in this situation' and you know what they did, they ignored us, so here we are, we have the LIRR completely shutdown, three days into a work stoppage and its constant back and forth," Sexton said. "Like I said, every time we counter, it's what's next, we think we are close, we have got to counter, I don't know how long it is going to go on for."

MTA Chief Negotiator Gary Dellaverson said Monday afternoon that contract talks with five Long Island Rail Road unions had stalled after negotiators failed to make progress overnight and throughout the morning.

Dellaverson said the MTA believed late Sunday night that a tentative agreement to end the strike and restore service was close. Negotiators met until about 1:30 a.m., with the MTA presenting several revised proposals. Union leaders asked for more time to review the offers and requested a break until Monday morning.

Both sides returned to negotiations at 7:30 a.m. Monday, but Dellaverson said no new proposals were introduced and little progress was made during discussions that lasted until 11 a.m. The unions then requested another break until 1 p.m., which was later extended until 3 p.m.

He also criticized the unions for what he described as a lack of urgency despite the ongoing disruption to commuters.

Dellaverson denied claims that the MTA had introduced new demands during overnight talks. He said discussions continued to focus mainly on financial terms that had already been under negotiation for several days.

The MTA confirmed that one remaining issue involves healthcare contributions for newly hired employees. Current Long Island Rail Road workers contribute 2% of their base wages toward health care costs, and the MTA is seeking higher contributions from future hires.