Behind the LIRR labor strife that has unions talking about a strike
The first Long Island Rail Road union strike in more than three decades could happen as soon as Sept. 18, absent intervention by the White House. It's a possibility that has caught many people off guard, including MTA officials left scrambling to figure out how to avoid disrupting the nation's busiest commuter rail system.
Union leaders had been signaling for weeks that such a development could be imminent. One union held a vote earlier this month in which 90% of voting members approved a strike, labor officials said. Still, officials with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the LIRR’s parent company, acknowledged being surprised by a decision earlier this month by the National Mediation Board that the two sides were at an impasse, which many observers predicted could be months, if not years, away.
Now a federally regulated process that typically moves at a snail’s pace is put on the fast track.
How did the LIRR get in this situation? How does it get out of it? And what does it all mean for the LIRR’s 300,000 daily commuters? Here’s what you need to know.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
Five unions representing nearly half all LIRR workers have rejected binding arbitration as they seek a new contract and a strike could happen as soon as Sept. 18.
Several steps, however, could be taken before a strike is called including asking President Donald Trump to intervene.
- If a shutdown of the LIRR did occur it would have significant impacts on the lives of riders and employers, as well as on the regional economy.
How did we get here?
The LIRR's various unions have historically negotiated contracts together, but in 2023, five unions representing nearly half the 7,000 union workers broke ranks with the railroad’s largest union, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), believing they could secure better contract terms than the three-year deal accepted by the other unions.
The five unions negotiating together — the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Transportation Communications Union, and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers — took their case to the National Mediation Board, a federal agency that oversees railway and airline labor issues. That board oversaw negotiations for more than a year until concluding, according to the unions, earlier this month that the two sides are "unable to reach a voluntary settlement."
When the unions a week ago rejected an invitation by mediators to enter into binding arbitration, both sides were released from federal mediation, beginning a 30-day "cooling off period," as it’s referred to in the federal Railway Labor Act. Either side, or Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, can ask the White House to intervene, which would set up more negotiations. But barring intervention from President Donald Trump's administration, at the end of that period, at 12:01 a.m. Sept. 18 the unions could strike or MTA management could lock them out.
What are the two sides fighting over?
The MTA wants the unions to accept a three-year contract with 3% raises in the first and second years, and a 3.5% raise in the third year — the same terms accepted by a majority of represented LIRR workers, as well as unionized MTA bus and subway workers and other municipal workers throughout the state. The MTA said those deals established a pattern that the holdout LIRR unions should follow.
But the unions say the 9.5% total wage increase doesn’t keep up with the high cost of living in New York and on Long Island, and effectively amounts to a wage cut. Although they have not gone public with their demands, the unions have suggested their wage increases should be more in line with those of other railroads throughout the United States, including Philadelphia’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority system, which paid 15% in raises over three years. MTA officials have pointed out that LIRR employees are already the highest-paid railroad workers in the United States, and benefit from lucrative union work rules — work rules that the MTA’s chairman has suggested could be targeted in a prolonged contract fight. That includes a rule that locomotive engineers can be paid double if they drive a diesel and electric train in the same shift.
According to the Empire Center for Public Policy, the average LIRR worker made $121,646 in 2024. A breakdown of average pay by union was not immediately available.
The impasse comes against the backdrop of massive, and growing, costs at the MTA, which has an annual operating budget of $20 billion — more than 60% of which goes to labor costs. That includes an overtime bill that reached about $1.4 billion last year. To help cover the tab, the MTA is planning to raise fares and tolls next year, including on the LIRR, which would see ticket prices increase by 4.4%.
What comes next?
If asked, the White House would appoint a "Presidential Emergency Board" — a panel of mediators selected by the Trump administration to oversee further contract talks and issue nonbinding recommendations to resolve the dispute. The whole process can take about six months. If no resolution is reached, federal law allows for a second Presidential Emergency Board to be impaneled — potentially extending the ongoing contract dispute to next summer. If a settlement still isn’t reached after that, a strike or lockout is allowed by law as a last resort. Once that happens, Congress could intervene and order unions back to work, impose a contract, or call for binding arbitration.
None of the parties have so far addressed whether they intend to ask the White House to intervene. Trump administration officials did not respond to requests for comment. In January, Trump voiced public support for dockworkers who had threatened a strike that could have crippled ports.
How would a strike affect Long Island commuters?
Even a brief shutdown of the LIRR could have significant impacts on the lives of riders and employers, as well as on the regional economy. The MTA has said it is "considering next steps," but has not said what those next steps are.
When the LIRR last faced the possibility of a work stoppage 11 years ago, it put together a contingency plan that involved busing riders from train stations on Long Island to subway stops in Queens, where their railroad tickets would be cross-honored, and also operating ferries between Long Island and Manhattan. Driving could be an option for some commuters, but they may have to pay new congestion pricing tolls for driving below 60th Street in Manhattan.
When is the last time this happened?
The last time LIRR unions went on strike was in 1994 — a three-day work stoppage that began on a Friday and was resolved in time for the Monday morning rush hour. In 2014, the LIRR came within three days of a strike, having not been able to come to an agreement with unions over wage increases, even after the appointment of two Presidential Emergency Boards. An eleventh-hour settlement brokered between SMART union leader Anthony Simon and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo staved off a work stoppage.
Some New York commuters only have to look back three months for their most recent memory of a railroad strike. After two Presidential Emergency Boards appointed by then-President Joe Biden failed to resolve a contract dispute, New Jersey Transit union workers went on strike for three days in May, before an agreement was reached for the workers to return to the job. The union involved in that contract fight, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, is also among the organizations involved in the current dispute with the LIRR.
What are some of the politics here?
Politics could play a big role in resolving the contract dispute, especially given that Hochul is expected to run for reelection next year.
Former MTA Board member Mitchell Pally, who was on the board when the LIRR last neared a strike in 2014, said he expects Hochul will request a Presidential Emergency Board, if only to buy more time to come to a resolution, and to avoid the perception that she is inviting a strike.
But, Pally said Trump could be inclined to leave the problem at the doorstep of Hochul, with whom his administration has feuded, including over the MTA's congestion pricing program.
Another political wrinkle: the fact that the LIRR's most politically connected union leader, SMART's Simon, is not part of the negotiations, having already accepted the MTA's 3-year, 9.5% contract. Simon, who has close ties to Hochul, criticized some of the other unions' leaders in a letter last year saying they "decided to break away from the organization that carried them for decades."
None of the unions in the contract dispute have ever endorsed Trump for president.
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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