{"id":236279,"date":"2026-05-19T02:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T02:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/236279\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T02:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T02:15:10","slug":"lirr-strike-hochul-announces-deal-to-end-walkout-hours-after-new-yorkers-experience-fallout-from-work-stoppage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/236279\/","title":{"rendered":"LIRR STRIKE: Hochul announces deal to end walkout hours after New Yorkers experience fallout from work stoppage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: Gov. Kathy Hochul announced just after 8:45 p.m. on Monday night<\/a> that the MTA had reached a deal with the coalition of unions representing Long Island Rail Road workers, bringing their three-day strike to an end. Hochul said the LIRR will return to phased-in service at noon Tuesday. Check back with amNY.com later for a full update.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The effects of the first Long Island Rail Road strike in over three decades<\/a> reverberated throughout the region on Monday as New Yorkers struggled to get between the five boroughs and Long Island while the nation\u2019s busiest commuter rail is out of commission.<\/p>\n

At New York\u2019s Penn Station, a hub normally bustling with LIRR riders on any given weekday, one of the main concourses was noticeably less crowded than a typical Monday morning. MTA<\/a> customer service agents, doning orange vests, stood in clusters throughout the mezzanine to help riders looking to get to Nassau or Suffolk Counties \u2014 including by handing out informational pamphlets on the replacement shuttle bus service.<\/p>\n

One commuter who sought their help, who gave her name as Jenny, said she did not know about the strike until MTA workers informed her. She told amNewYork that she was planning to take the LIRR to Mineola for work, as she does every Monday morning, but would now have to take the subway to either a shuttle bus or Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE) bus instead.<\/p>\n

Jenny said she was \u201ca little upset, but you know, things just happen.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul has advised those who normally rely upon the LIRR to commute to and from work to instead work remotely until the strike ends. She was briefed by MTA leadership on the current status of the strike midday on Monday. \"\"<\/p>\n

Commuters board NICE bus in Great Neck in Nassau County, as an alternative to taking the Long Island Rial Road, while its workers aree on strike. Monday, May 18, 2026.Photo Credit: (c) Karen Rubin\/news-photos-features.com<\/p>\n

Another commuter, Emina Poricanin<\/a>, an attorney whose firm represents employers in labor disputes, said she would have to find an alternate way to get to federal court in Central Islip. She said that she should be able afford getting there by Uber or Lyft, but that not everyone can swing such an expense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have my own firm, I do okay. So, whatever the gouged prices are for Uber and Lyft, I could pay them,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s the hard-working people who will be affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Long Island, commuters were caught in heavy traffic going toward the city on Monday morning as LIRR stations stood empty.\n<\/p>\n

In the North Shore Nassau County town of Manhasset, \u201cFor Five Coffee Roasters\u201d employee Jay Maldonado said business was down roughly 30% and that a quarter of workers had to take time off or cut hours due to having to take longer commutes without the rail road. He said he had to take a $50 Uber from the Bronx to get to work, but the employer fortunately reinbursed him and other staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is horrible,\u201d he said. \u201cThe employer did everything they can to support us by reimbursing staff\u2019s Uber cost. I don\u2019t really have an opinion on the strike, but I really hope it can resolve soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

LIRR strike sees continued pickets in Manhattan<\/p>\n

At the same time, workers from the five striking unions \u2014 the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS), the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and the Transportation Communications Union (TCU) \u2014 protested on the picket line just outside of the Penn Station entrance on Seventh Avenue.<\/p>\n

The picketing workers marched in a circle, chanting slogans including \u201cwhat do we want, a contract, when do we want it, now\u201d and \u201cwhen we fight, we win.\u201d
\n\"\"Workers from the five Long Island Rail Road unions on strike over demands for increased pay on the picket line outside of New York Penn Station. Monday, May 18, 2026.Photo by Ethan Stark-Miller\n<\/p>\n

The unions, representing around half of the LIRR workforce at 3,500 members, pulled their workers off the job early Saturday morning after they were unable to agree on a new contract with MTA leadership.<\/p>\n

Negotiations between the two sides, which are being facilitated by a federal mediator, resumed at the MTA\u2019s Lower Manhattan headquarters early Monday morning, even as they have been publicly trading barbs<\/a> throughout the strike so far. Both sides accused one another on Monday afternoon of standing in the way of making a deal.<\/p>\n

Gary Dellaverson, the MTA\u2019s chief negotiator, claimed union leaders have been repeatedly dragging talks out by asking for more time to consider the agency\u2019s proposals. He said that while he had been hopeful last night that they were moving toward an agreement that could restore service, it turned out to be \u201coverly optimistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the unions have shown us that they have no sense of urgency that they can get this resolved,\u201d Dellaverson said.\n<\/p>\n

Kevin Sexton, vice president of BLET, said that from the unions\u2019 perspective the MTA keeps preventing them from reaching a deal by introducing a new \u201cgame.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we counter, it\u2019s what\u2019s next?\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

MTA officials could not say if service would be restored for Tuesday\u2019s commute.\n<\/p>\n

The central disagreement is over the size of pay raises the unions are seeking for this year, the last of a four-year contract. Union leaders at first sought a 6.5% recurring increase for 2026 and beyond, then brought their ask down to 5%, and said it had dropped to between 4% and 5% by the end of last week.<\/p>\n

They say the increase is necessary to keep up with soaring costs driven by inflation.\n<\/p>\n

Hochul and MTA leaders, on the other hand, contend the agency cannot afford to give the unions a raise at that level because it would set a bargaining pattern<\/a> that the MTA\u2019s largest union, TWU Local 100, would use to request its own pay bumps.<\/p>\n

Instead, the MTA pitched between 3% and 4% raises, or a 3% raise with a lump-sum payout that would take the 2026 raise to 4.5%, but only for that year.
\n\"\"Traffic on the Long Island Expressway into the city amid the Long Island Rail Road strike. Monday, May 18, 2026.Photo Credit: (c) Karen Rubin\/news-photos-features.com\n<\/p>\n

They say that having to pay for those increases could lead to sizable fare hikes or service cuts to make up for the expense.<\/p>\n

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said in a Monday morning interview on NY1<\/a> that LIRR employees are some of the highest-paid rail workers in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the best-paid workers,\u201d Lieber said. \u201cThey have great benefits, especially they have rich pensions, which folks in the real world, the private sector, rarely get. We don\u2019t want to give them more than the other MTA unions have already agreed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

With reporting by Miao Li.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s note: Gov. Kathy Hochul announced just after 8:45 p.m. on Monday night that the MTA had reached…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3932,85688,92468,2563,141,31847,9,24,55,54,56,7968,613],"class_list":["post-236279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-gov-kathy-hochul","tag-lirr-strike","tag-long-island-rail-road-unions","tag-mineola","tag-mta","tag-mta-chair-and-ceo-janno-lieber","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-penn-station","tag-pm-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}