LIRR unions, MTA's late-night bargaining session ends with no deal to stop strike

Local News Long Island Rail Road unions, MTA's late-night bargaining session ends with no deal to stop strike By Lisa Rozner, Lisa Rozner Lisa Rozner joined CBS News New York in 2017. She covers a wide range of stories. Read Full Bio Lisa Rozner, Mark Prussin Mark Prussin Digital Producer, CBS New York Mark Prussin is a digital producer at CBS New York. He covers breaking news, sports, politics and trending stories in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Mark joined the CBS New York team in 2019. Read Full Bio Mark Prussin Updated on: May 18, 2026 / 4:30 AM EDT / CBS New York Add CBS News on Google With the Long Island Rail Road strike about to enter its third day, the National Mediation Board said it summoned the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and union leaders to a meeting to resume talks to end the strike. The meeting started Sunday evening and went on until around 1:30 a.m as the clock ticked toward a potentially hectic Monday morning for hundreds of thousands of New York City commuters who rely on the rail service. The National Mediation Board is a federal agency that handles labor relations for railroads. The goal of the meeting was to restart bargaining between the five LIRR unions and MTA, which together support the busiest commuter rail system in North America. They will return to the negotiation table at 7:30 a.m. Monday. The NMB's call to a meeting came hours after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appealed to the unions to return to the bargaining table. "I'll provide refreshments, whatever you like. Just come on back. This is important to show that we have partners who are willing to get to a resolution to this, because it's hurting their members as well as our commuters," Hochul said at a news conference. MTA made sudden demands, union sources sayUnion sources said earlier the MTA had agreed to a 9.5% wage hike for the first three years of the contract and were only 2 percentage points apart on the fourth year,...