The Long Island Rail Road, America\u2019s busiest passenger rail service, ground to a halt on Saturday because of its first labor strike in more than 30 years.<\/p>\n
Five unions representing more than 3,500 workers \u2014 including engineers, signalmen and machinists \u2014 walked off the job early on May 16, after three years of failed contract negotiations came to a head.<\/p>\n
The strike on the Long Island Rail Road, which carries more than 270,000 passengers a day between Long Island and New York City, on average, is expected to cause chaos for travelers with few other options. Many commuters cannot work remotely and rely on the service. And on Saturday, the New York Mets are set to face the Yankees at Citi Field in Queens, where thousands of Long Island fans were expected to arrive by rail.<\/p>\n
The strike comes as Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, seeks re-election later this year. The governor, who lost Long Island in the last election, is being challenged by the Nassau County executive, Bruce Blakeman, a Republican with close ties to the region.<\/p>\n
Ms. Hochul said at a news conference on Wednesday that she did not want a strike, but that the unions\u2019 salary demands could jeopardize the M.T.A.\u2019s finances at a time when the authority is finally on stable ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not willing to ask Long Islanders to pay unnecessary fare hikes or higher taxes,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we have to be ready for whatever happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
What do the unions want?<\/p>\n
The five unions, representing about half of the Long Island Rail Road work force, are the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen; the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen; the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; and the Transportation Communications Union.<\/p>\n
They are seeking a retroactive 9.5 percent wage increase covering the last three years \u2014 the same deal the M.T.A. offered several other transit and civil service unions in recent months. But they were also seeking a 5 percent raise in the current year, a demand that exceeded what the M.T.A. has offered to other unions.<\/p>\n
The M.T.A. countered with a 3 percent raise for 2026, plus a lump-sum cash payment, which it said would avoid upending negotiations with more than 80 other unions.<\/p>\n
On Friday morning, Nick Peluso, the national vice president of the Transportation Communications Union, said in a statement that the M.T.A. had raised its offer for 2026 to a percentage increase \u201cin the mid-3s,\u201d but that the unions were seeking something in the 4 percent range.<\/p>\n
Sean Butler, a spokesman for the governor, said Ms. Hochul called into the negotiations on Friday to express her view that \u201cnobody wins in a strike.\u201d He said she conveyed that riders would suffer and thousands of workers would lose out on pay.<\/p>\n
Leaders of the negotiating unions have argued that their workers don\u2019t make enough money to keep up with the cost of living in one of the country\u2019s most expensive metro areas. They have not received raises since 2022.<\/p>\n
Cash compensation for members of the five holdout unions averaged over $136,000 in 2025, according to M.T.A. figures, making them among the highest-paid rail workers in the nation.<\/p>\n
The rail service has an annual operating budget of $2.2 billion. Labor accounts for nearly three-fourths of that budget.<\/p>\n
If the unions agree to the current offer of a 9.5 percent raise over three years, the M.T.A. said, the average worker will receive more than $25,000 in back pay.<\/p>\n
But without a higher percentage-rate increase in 2026, the workers\u2019 salaries would soon lag behind inflation again, said James Horwitz, a spokesman for the unions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to see real wage growth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Who is affected by the strike?<\/p>\n
The Long Island Rail Road carried nearly 82 million customers<\/a> last year. Most were weekday commuters on their way to jobs in New York City, but an increasing number of passengers are using the service on weekends \u2014 about 137,000 on a typical Saturday, and 112,000 on Sundays.<\/p>\n A growing share of passengers live in Queens and the parts of Nassau County that are closest to New York City.<\/p>\n Transit officials expect more traffic on major highways, including the Long Island Expressway and the Northern State Parkway.<\/p>\n What are the travel alternatives during the strike?<\/p>\n The M.T.A. will provide free weekday bus service<\/a> beginning Monday morning from six locations on Long Island to two subway stations in Queens, and in the opposite direction during the evening rush.<\/p>\n Buses will pick up riders in the morning at the Bay Shore, Hicksville and Mineola L.I.R.R. stations, as well as Hempstead Lake State Park near the Lakeview station, and bring them to the A train stop at Howard Beach-JFK Airport. There will also be pick-ups at the Huntington and Ronkonkoma stations, and those buses will take riders to the F train stop at Jamaica-179 Street.<\/p>\n The buses to Queens are expected to run every 10 minutes from 4:30 a.m. to 9 a.m., and afternoon shuttles back to Long Island will run from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. There will be a limited number of buses running in the non-peak direction at some of the stations.<\/p>\n Janno Lieber, the M.T.A.\u2019s chairman and chief executive, said the buses would not be able to accommodate all the riders who rely on the railroad, and encouraged people to work from home if they can.<\/p>\n Jai Patel, the M.T.A.\u2019s chief financial officer, said that between 165 and 275 buses would be used, at a cost of $325,000 to $550,000 per day. Even if the strike is averted, the M.T.A. would still have to pay to reserve the buses.<\/p>\n The plan leaves many gaps across the railroad\u2019s 126 stations. The M.T.A. anticipates that many people will drive or be dropped off at subway stations in Queens and Brooklyn, but said additional parking would not be provided.<\/p>\n Riders in Nassau County can take the Nassau County bus service, known as NICE, to the No. 7 train in Flushing, one of the busiest subway stations<\/a> in the city, or to the Jamaica Bus Terminal to catch an F train.<\/p>\n The M.T.A. said that in the event of a strike, it would issue refunds to riders with monthly rail passes for business days without train service.<\/p>\n What led to this dispute?<\/p>\n Unlike much of the M.T.A. work force, which is prevented from striking because it is governed by different rules, Long Island Rail Road workers are covered by a 1926 federal law called the Railway Labor Act.<\/p>\n The law was designed to prevent major service disruptions by requiring mediation and an extended review period before a strike is authorized.<\/p>\n But in an unusual move, the federal agency that oversees such disputes, the National Mediation Board, last year released the unions<\/a> from mediation, a decision that cleared the path for a possible walkout.<\/p>\n Ms. Hochul on Wednesday said that decision had \u201cneedlessly accelerated\u201d the movement toward a strike, and blamed the Trump administration for increasing the odds.<\/p>\n A strike was postponed<\/a> twice within the past year, after the unions requested the intervention of two federally appointed review boards. The three-person panels, which were appointed by President Trump, said the unions should be paid more than what the M.T.A. was offering. But their<\/a> recommendations<\/a> are not binding, and a third panel cannot be requested.<\/p>\n Gary Dellaverson, a former M.T.A. executive and labor negotiator who is advising the authority in the negotiations, said it was willing to match the recommendations made by the federal mediation panels, with a four-year agreement worth more than $133 million in wage gains that includes a lump-sum payment \u2014 the equivalent of a 4.5 percent raise in 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not a gimmick; this is not uncommon,\u201d Mr. Dellaverson said of the latest offer.<\/p>\n The unions have said they oppose a lump-sum agreement that would not ensure long-term wage gains.<\/p>\n The federal government could still act to prevent a strike. But Congress did not intervene in a similar dispute last year, when NJ Transit engineers walked off the job<\/a>.<\/p>\n M.T.A. officials had said they would consider the unions\u2019 wage offer if the unions were willing to give up a number of work rules that often require higher pay for certain tasks. The unions declined to do so.<\/p>\n For instance, if an engineer drives a diesel train at the start of a shift but is asked to switch to an electric train in the same day, the M.T.A. must compensate that worker with two days\u2019 pay. If, on the same day, the engineer is asked to switch from driving passengers to driving a train back to a yard for maintenance or storage, that worker is entitled to a third day of pay.<\/p>\n These penalty payments added almost 15 percent to the average engineer\u2019s compensation in 2024, the M.T.A. said.<\/p>\n When was the last L.I.R.R. strike?<\/p>\n There has not been a strike on the railroad since 1994<\/a>, when a two-day suspension sent riders scrambling for alternatives.<\/p>\n