MTA official: Contract agreement 'very close' but work remains
MTA managers and Long Island Rail Road union leaders are “very close” on a contract agreement, but “there’s still work to be done” to close a deal that will avert an union strike, a key Metropolitan Transportation Authority official said Thursday evening.
Briefing reporters during a break in a marathon bargaining session that began at 10 a.m, John McCarthy, chief of policy and external relations for the MTA, called Thursday’s talks “very serious,” and noted that they’ve included, for the first time, MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber.
“There's still work to be done, so it's like any negotiation. There’s a lot of back and forth, but we're not going to give up on this,” McCarthy said, speaking outside the MTA’s Lower Manhattan headquarters, where the talks are being held. “This is very important. It's important for riders on the Long Island Rail Road and so we're gonna be in it as long as it takes.”
McCarthy said he expects the talks will continue into Friday.
“I think we're optimistic that a deal can be done,” McCarthy said. “We are very close, but we need to do some more work.”
Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.
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