Long Island Rail Workers Strike in First Walkout Since 1994 (2)

The Long Island Rail Road, the nation’s busiest commuter line, will suspend service for the first time in more than 30 years after labor groups and transit officials failed to reach a deal on wage increases by a Friday night deadline.

About 3,500 engineers, electrical workers and signalmen will walk off the job Saturday for the first time since 1994. Kevin Sexton, national vice president at the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, announced the strike at a press conference after midnight following two days of round-the-clock negotiations that ended without a contract agreement.

“We were willing to move down a little bit, but there’s a far distance,” Sexton said about the unions’ proposed wage increase and what the LIRR was willing to pay. “We do not know the duration of the strike at this time.”

The suspension will increase traffic even more on Long Island roadways as roughly 300,000 weekday riders will need to find other ways to get around the island and into New York City.

Commuters exit a Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) train at Penn Station in New York on May 15.

Photographer: Adam Gray/Getty Images

The LIRR labor groups are seeking a 5% boost, or close to it, to begin in June to keep up with inflation. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state agency that runs New York City subways and buses as well as the LIRR and Metro-North commuter lines, has said that such a hike without savings on other labor costs would force it to raise fares more than anticipated or reduce service.

“The disruption that Long Islanders face starting tonight is the direct result of reckless actions by the Trump administration to cut mediation short and push these negotiations toward a strike,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement, urging the MTA and the unions to resume negotiations and strike a deal.

President Donald Trump accused Hochul of trying to deflect blame for the strike in a post that he used to back Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate for her seat.

“If you can’t solve it, let me know, and I’ll show you how to properly get things done,” he said.

MTA officials offered a raise at nearly 4.5%, but with a plan for new employees to pay a higher contribution to their healthcare benefits than current workers, Janno Lieber, chief executive officer at the MTA, said at a separate press briefing after union leaders spoke to reporters. Sexton and the other union leaders rejected that proposal.

“We cannot, and will not, do a deal that shifts huge cost to our riders by forcing extra fare hikes,” Lieber said. “And we can’t expect taxpayers to foot the bill either. They’re already doing enough.”

The suspension comes just a week before peak tourist season for Long Island, which begins on Memorial Day weekend. LIRR ridership typically soars during the summer months as New York City residents head out to Long Island’s beaches, including the Hamptons. A strike will cost the area $61 million of lost economic activity per day, according to Thomas DiNapoli, the state’s comptroller.

“These unions represent the highest paid workers of any railroad in the nation, yet they are demanding contracts that could raise fares as much as 8%, pit workers against one another, and risk tax hikes for Long Islanders,” Hochul, a Democrat, said in her statement. “This is unacceptable. My priority is protecting affordability for riders and ensuring fairness across the workforce.”

Disruption

The LIRR work stoppage is the second passenger-rail strike in the New York City region in roughly a year. New Jersey Transit, which runs throughout the Garden State and provides a link to Manhattan, had a three-day work stoppage in May 2025 over a salary dispute with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. The BLET is one of five unions involved in the LIRR strike.

As negotiations continued into the late afternoon, the MTA began winding down operations and preparing equipment and trains for a potential stoppage. No trains would begin a route after midnight and any train still in service after the deadline would travel to its final destination, even after midnight, according to LIRR President Rob Free.

It’s unclear if the LIRR would be ready to provide regular morning rush-hour service on Monday even if the parties were to end the strike and come to an agreement over the weekend because it takes time to restart the system, Free said.

While the BLET and other labor groups are pushing for wage increases that better match inflation, the MTA must balance its budget and resolve an estimated $160 million deficit next year that’s set to grow to $306 million in 2029, according to MTA financial documents.

The parties agree on a retroactive 9.5% wage increase over three years, but differ on the raise that starts in 2026. The MTA this week offered a 3% boost and a one-time cash payment that would be equal to an additional 1.5% lift. The unions have called the cash payment “a gimmick” and are seeking a higher percentage raise.

The labor dispute comes as households contend with higher prices for food, gas and other necessities. MTA officials warned last month that a sizable wage increase would force the transit provider to hike fares by as much as 8%, scale back service or reduce its headcount.

Even a two- or three-day strike starting on Saturday would be a major disruption for Long Islanders. More residents are using the system for weekend travel than before the pandemic, with average weekend ridership in 2025 at 267,567, up from 210,313 in 2019, a nearly 30% increase, according to a report last month from DiNapoli’s office.

Along with the BLET, the unions participating in the strike include the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, the Transportation Communications Union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

The MTA is urging the public to work from home, if possible, during the strike. The agency’s contingency plan includes running as many as 275 shuttle buses from six different locations on Long Island to subway stations in Queens. Those shuttle buses will cost the MTA up to $550,000 a day, according to Jai Patel, the agency’s chief financial officer.

The LIRR service suspension is starting on the same day that MTA’s Transport Workers Union employees begin working without a contract after it expired at the end of the day on Friday. That labor group represents about 40,000 MTA subway and bus employees and has been negotiating with the MTA in recent weeks.

Transit officials want to avoid giving LIRR workers a raise above 3% in 2026 because TWU employees will also want that higher percentage increase, union leaders have said.

(Updates with comments from Hochul and Trump starting in sixth paragraph.)

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