The city has struck a contract agreement for the first time in more than a decade with the union that represents Staten Island Ferry workers, Mayor Eric Adams said Monday.

The $103 million deal with the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association, which represents licensed officers, will take effect retroactively from Nov. 7, 2010, Adams said in a news release.

"Today, we thank our tireless ferry workers, not just with words — but with a contract that delivers the fair wages and benefits they deserve," the mayor said in a statement. "Thanks to this agreement, both our ferry workers and the working people of Staten Island can continue to ride forward without worry or interruptions."

At a news conference Adams held Monday afternoon, Office of Labor Relations Commissioner Renee Campion said the new contract would cover 150 workers, including captains, assistant captains, mates, marine engineers and chief marine engineers.

The contract includes compounded and retroactive wage increases for captains, assistant captains and mates, as well as retroactive wage hikes for marine engineers and chief marine engineers, according to the release. 

Captains were earning nearly $71,000 a year in November 2010, Campion said. At the end of the new contract, their salaries will have risen to $180,000, she said. 

Assistant captains’ salaries will rise from $63,000 in 2010 to $138,000 at the end of the contract; mates’ will rise from $58,000 to $124,000; chief marine engineers’ will rise from $69,000 to $180,281; and marine engineers’ will rise from $64,000 to $145,000, according to Campion.

The contract will also establish a 40-hour work week effective Oct. 1 — up from a 32-hour work week — and allow union members to take vacations in two-week blocks instead of one-week blocks, the release said.

Union employees hired or promoted after Oct. 1 will have a five-step salary schedule, effective as of that date, it added. 

Staten Island Ferry riders have dealt with service disruptions several times within the past year, including earlier this summer, when officials from the city's Department of Transportation said service was delayed because a "significant" number of crew members had called out sick.

In a statement provided to NY1 at the time, a spokesperson for the ferry workers union said the delays were caused by a "lack of staffing [stemming from] recruitment/retention issues for piloted, certified and U.S. Coast Guard-certified crew members based on 14 years without a contract that would recruit professional pilots and mariners for the large vessels we operate in the harbor and ocean passage."

On Monday, Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association secretary-treasurer Roland Rexha said shifting workers to a 40-hour work week would provide "immediate relief, and resolve staffing shortages."

"On this Labor Day in 2023, we have achieved a remarkable feat - transforming the lowest paid ferry jobs in the nation into the highest paid," Rexha said in a statement. "Now, New York City can offer the reliable service that Staten Islanders truly deserve."