Crisis averted.
LIRR unions and the MTA derailed what would have been a devastating strike by ending their stalemate Thursday with a sweeping package that includes wage hikes for workers and health-care and pension savings for management.
“This is a compromise by both parties after four long years,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who played an instrumental role in the final negotiations, and who sources said finalized the deal over a seafood lunch at the Midtown restaurant Docks Oyster Bar.
The deal came less than 72 hours before the unions were set to strike at 12:01 a.m. Sunday in a work stoppage that would have stranded the LIRR’s 300,000 daily commuters.
Workers will get 17 percent raises over 6¹/₂ years instead of over the six years they’d been seeking and the seven years the MTA had been pushing.
Fares will not go up because of the deal, officials said.
LIRR workers will chip in for their health-care costs for the first time.
Both current and new workers will contribute 2 percent of their base pay for health care, union sources said.
The MTA had wanted new hires to pay 4 percent of their base pay for health care and current workers 2 percent.
New workers also will contribute 4 percent of their base pay for their pensions for 15 years, while current workers will continue to pay for 10 years, union sources added.
Workers hired after 2008 will continue to contribute 4 percent and those hired before 2008 will pay 3 percent.
Another savings to the MTA is that workers will take two years longer to reach top salary.
The new contract, if ratified by 5,400 workers and the MTA Board, will expire in just two years on Dec. 16, 2016.
The agreement, the cost of which was not released, was modeled on recommendations from a board of negotiators appointed by President Obama.
That deal was estimated to cost the MTA about $40 million a year.
“The agreement reached today provides a fair and reasonable contract,” said MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast.
The deal ends four years of bitter negotiations after contracts for eight LIRR unions expired in June 2010.
“It was a long road, it was a tough road,” lead union negotiator Anthony Simon said shortly before the agreement was signed. Talks on Thursday moved to Cuomo’s Third Avenue offices from a Times Square skyscraper where they were held Wednesday. Informal negotiations over the phone went through the night and into
Thursday morning.
“The most intensive period of negotiation was from 6 o’clock last evening until late last night,” said Cuomo. “I was too bleary-eyed to actually look at the watch.”
In the morning, union negotiators and MTA officials walked to Third Avenue from the Hilton Hotel and MTA Headquarters for 10 a.m. negotiations.
A tentative deal was reached shortly after noon, and then the final details were hashed out over a seafood lunch at Docks Oyster Bar, a Cuomo favorite, sources said.
“They all seemed happy, it was jovial,” said one worker.
A riders’ advocacy group was pleased that commuters would not see fare hikes or a strike.
“All riders feel relief at the announcement of this settlement,” said Mark Epstein of the Long Island Rail Road Commuter Council.
Late Thursday evening, union officials began to pitch the deal to workers. The package includes 12.5 percent retroactive raises and 4.5 percent future ones, sources said. The raise schedule starts with a 2 percent boost in December 2010, followed by 1.5 percent increases.
Workers will not have to make retroactive health payments, which union officials estimate will save each employee $4,200.
The raises also compound, so the full value of the wage hikes could be as much as 18.4 percent, union sources added.