Members of eight unions approve new LIRR contract

Members of the MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) General Committee of Adjustment GO 505 ratified a new contact with LIRR management by a 97 percent margin, union officials announced late last week.

The ratification vote represented the largest margin of approval for a contract in the general committee's history, union officials said in a press release. The approval rate for the eight-union coalition that worked together in bargaining with LIRR was 95 percent, they said.

The vote concluded more than four years of negotiations and a contract dispute between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, LIRR and the unions.

The settlement provides members 18 percent in compounded wage increases over six-and-a-half years.