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Long Island Rail Road workers walked off the job on Monday after rejecting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s latest wage offer, snarling travel for hundreds of thousands of weekday commuters even as payroll data shows the striking employees already earn six-figure pay.
LIRR employees had an average income of $121,646 plus an average of $25,957 in overtime pay as of 2024, according to data provided by the railroad operator. While the typical LIRR employee makes about $150,000 a year, the per capita personal income in Suffolk County, one of the two counties that make up Long Island, was just $92,113 in 2024. Bordering Nassua County, meanwhile, had a per capita personal income of $109,400 that year.
The rail employees are striking because they feel the raise offered to them by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is not enough to compensate for the rising cost of living in the New York metropolitan area.
In addition to negatively impacting the travel plans of the estimated more than a quarter million people who ride the LIRR every day, the New York State Comptroller estimates that the strike will cost the region an average of $61 million per day.
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“To every LIRR passenger whose trip is disrupted, know that the MTA left us no choice but to strike,” Gil Lang, General Chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen’s LIRR General Committee, said of the strike. “We don’t want to be on the picket line. But after three years without raises, we cannot make any more compromises to cover for the MTA’s mismanagement.”
The MTA, which manages the LIRR, offered the five unions representing the striking workers a raise of 9.5% over three years, an agreement that has already been approved by other transit unions, Newsday reported. To sweeten the deal, the MTA offered an additional 4.5% after the fourth year, provided the rail operators agree to productivity increases.
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LIRR union leaders have called the terms offered to them unreasonable and demanded a 14.5% raise over four years with no strings attached.
In addition to the generous pay, LIRR workers benefit from workplace rules that allow them to earn even more. If an LIRR worker operates electric and diesel vehicles on the same shift, or if they work in a rail yard and on an active train in one day, their contract entitles them to double pay. Three hundred twenty-five LIRR employees pull in $100,000 or more in overtime alone annually, according to data reviewed by the New York Post.
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“I’m just trying to get home to my kids, and I have to still remember that they are still striking for their reasons so it’s not all about me,” one Long Island commuter impacted by the strike told Gothamist. “But at the same time, whatever it is that they’re striking about, whoever is responsible for their inconvenience — I hope that they fix it because it is trickling down to everyone.”
One teacher told CBS News that he had to wake up at 2 a.m. to catch a 4:30 a.m. shuttle bus into the city, as remote work is not possible for him. Multiple other commuters had similar stories.
“It’s just crazy,” the teacher said. “It’s an inconvenience.”
The strike is ongoing as of writing with no clear end in sight.
“We’re far apart at this point,” BLET national vice president Kevin Sexton said Saturday. “We are truly sorry that we are in this situation.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has so far avoided publicly taking a side in the dispute, instead focusing on warning commuters about travel delays and providing information on what his administration is doing to help.
“At the legally-binding request of the unions, the President twice convened a Presidential Emergency Board comprised of professional arbitrators to resolve this longstanding labor dispute,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told Fox News Digital. “The current strike and shutdown of the LIRR are entirely the fault of Kathy Hochul and her inability to accept a recommended solution for the parties to reach an agreement.”
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“This LIRR strike was only possible because the Trump administration authorized it last fall. Before that, a strike could not happen,” Gov. Kathy Hochul posted to X on May 16. “Facts still matter, @POTUS.”
The five unions representing the striking workers and the mayor’s office did not respond when reached for comment by Fox News Digital on Monday.
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