LIRR workers making over $160K per year go on strike for higher wages
MTA, union leaders clash as LIRR strike begins
Long Island Rail Road workers are launching a strike for the first time in three decades, affecting 300,000 daily commuters and putting millions in commerce at risk. Union leaders and MTA officials are expressing frustration, blaming each other for the failure of contract negotiations over wages and health care bonuses. New York Governor Kathy Hochul blames the disruption on “reckless actions by the Trump administration.”
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Long Island Rail Road workers walked off the job Monday after rejecting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s latest wage offer, hampering weekday travel for hundreds of thousands of commuters, even as payroll data shows striking employees already earning six-figure salaries.
LIRR employees had an average income of $121,646 plus an average of $25,957 in overtime in 2024, according to to the data provided by the railway operator. While the typical LIRR employee earns about $150,000 per year, the median Long Island household, which often includes multiple workers, earned only $131,000 in 2023, by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Railroad workers are on strike because they believe the raise offered to them by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is not enough to offset the rising cost of living in the New York metropolitan area.
In addition to negatively impacting the travel plans of the more than a quarter of a million people who ride the LIRR every day, New York State Comptroller estimates that the strike will cost the region an average of $61 million per day.
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Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen hold signs during a strike outside NJ Transit headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, May 16, 2025. About 450 union members walked off the job after wage negotiations with NJ Transit failed, disrupting travel for about 350,000 New Jersey and New York City commuters. (Kéna Betancur/Getty Images)
“To all LIRR riders whose travel is disrupted, please know that the MTA has left us with no choice but to strike,” said Gil Lang, general president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the LIRR General Committee. said of the strike. “We don’t want to be on the picket line. But after three years without pay increases, we can no longer compromise to cover up the MTA’s mismanagement.”
The MTA, which runs the LIRR, offered the five unions representing striking workers a 9.5 percent raise over three years, a deal that has already been endorsed by other transportation unions, Newsday reported. To sweeten the deal, the MTA offered an additional 4.5 percent after the fourth year, conditional on train operators agreeing to productivity increases.
Commuters wait for their train in the NJ Transit section of Penn Station in New York, May 20, 2025. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
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LIRR union leaders called the conditions offered to them unreasonable and demanded a 14.5% increase over four years, with no strings attached.
In addition to a generous salary, LIRR workers benefit from work rules that allow them to earn even more. If a LIRR worker drives electric and diesel vehicles during the same shift, or works in a rail yard and on an active train in the same day, their contract gives right that they pay twice. Three hundred and twenty-five LIRR employees earn $100,000 or more in overtime alone per year, according to to data reviewed by the New York Post.
A conductor stands on a train of the Long Island Railroad (LIRR), the nation’s largest commuter rail system, ahead of a possible railroad workers’ strike at Penn Station, New York, United States, May 15, 2026. (Reuters/David Dee Delgado)
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“I’m just trying to get home to my kids, and I still have to remind myself that they always strike for their reasons, so it’s not just because of me,” said one Long Island commuter affected by the strike. said Gothamist. “But at the same time, whatever the reason for their strike, whoever is responsible for their inconvenience, I hope they fix it, because it affects everyone.”
A teacher said CBS News that he had to wake up at 2 a.m. to catch a 4:30 a.m. shuttle into the city because remote work isn’t possible for him. Several other commuters had similar stories.
“It’s just crazy,” the professor said. “It’s an inconvenience.”
The strike continues as of this writing with no clear end in sight.
“We’re very far apart at this point,” said BLET national vice president Kevin Sexton. said SATURDAY. “We are very sorry to find ourselves in this situation.”
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has so far avoided publicly taking sides in the conflict, instead focusing on warning travelers about travel delays and providing information about what his administration is doing to help them.
The five unions representing the strikers and the mayor’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital for comment Monday.
