Read our editorial on the significance of strikes here.
The leaders of the 4,000-strong Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) unions contacted ultra-reactionary president Donald Trump to seek a contract settlement in the workers’ struggle against the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), which operates the LIRR. The move averted a pending strike set for September 18 that had near-unanimous approval from workers.
The LIRR moves 300,000 commuters a day between New York City and Long Island, and is the largest commuter rail service in the country.
The ongoing struggle is between the MTA and five unions: Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS), International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and Transportation Communications Union (TCU). Negotiations have been going on since February 2024, and the latest move by union leaders to avert the strike will only drag it on longer.
According to a statement from the BRS, the unions reached out to the White House to settle the dispute using the Railway Labor Act in order to “restrict [New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s] reckless intent to use hard-working unionized workers to punish the public,” playing into the false narrative that pits workers against each other by implying that strikes are reckless.
Following the request, the Trump administration established the presidential emergency board, which is required to report on the negotiations to Trump within 30 days, and enacted a “cooling-off” period that essentially bans a strike for 120 days.
While the unions—along with other unions contracted with the MTA—are in agreement around a three-year contract that gives a 9.5% total pay raise over the next three years, LIRR workers represented by these five unions are demanding an additional 6.5% pay raise on the fourth year to keep up with inflation. Workers have not received a pay raise since 2022, meaning that their real wages have continuously been cut as living expenses rise for the working class. The pay raise workers are demanding does not even amount to the rate of inflation under the four years of the Biden administration, let alone the increases since Trump took office.
The struggle also comes amid an increased push from MTA toward automation, which typically results in layoffs. BLET President Mark Wallace told members at a conference last month that the transit authority is automating in a drive for one person crews. This means layoffs and less rail safety, similar to the anti-worker plans of the freight monopolies.
The last LIRR strike lasted for two days in 1994 before it was shut down by then-New York Governor Mario Cuomo, who settled mainly in the interests of the MTA, without the union bureaucracy putting up a fight. Now, the business union leadership has gone directly to the federal government itself, which is controlled by the Republican mafia, in contrast to the Democrat mafia in control of the MTA.
Earlier in September, Democrat Governor Hochul blamed the Trump administration for allowing the strike to happen after a federal mediation agency overseeing the negotiations approved workers to proceed with the strike legally. Hochul attempted to pit commuters against LIRR workers, labeling worker demands “greedy”. “We have to get away from the strike language, and the White House and others should be using their power to say, ‘You’re not allowed to strike, you cannot strike,’” the governor said during a press conference, calling on the federal government to suppress the rail workers’ struggle.
The transit monopoly is planning on pushing forward a fare hike in January 2026—after protesters succeeded in delaying it—telling workers that it is good for them, while at the same time trying to suffocate workers’ struggles with the help of the business union leadership.
Photo: Long Island Rail Road. Credit: Mtattrain via Wikipedia.
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