The union's board "voted overwhelmingly to approve the proposed contract," Transport Workers Union Local 100 leader Roger Toussaint said at a televised news conference.
The new contract, which must be ratified by the union's 34,000 members, provides for wage increases of 3 percent, 4 percent and 3-1/2 percent for the next three years, Toussaint said.
The union's dispute with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority over pay, pensions and health care came to a head last week as transit workers staged a three-day strike, causing traffic havoc in America's most populous city at the height of the holiday season and costing the economy more than $1 billion, according to city officials.
The new contract provides for a refund of member contributions to pensions over the past several years, plus medical coverage and health benefits coverage for retirees, Toussaint said. It also establishes that workers will pay 1.5 percent of wages toward health benefit coverage.
The contract will "go a long way toward improving the relations between the transit workers and the authority, and establish a greater degree of respect and appreciation for the sacrifices that our members undertake in this city every day," Toussaint said.