With LIRR strike, union leaders defied expectations and secured higher raises from MTA

While falling short of the resounding victory some LIRR employees hoped for, the five railroad unions that went on strike two weeks ago surpassed many observers’ expectations — by securing raises higher than transit workers have seen in years, while giving up relatively little and cementing themselves as major players in New York’s labor relations landscape, union leaders, MTA officials and sources with knowledge of the negotiations said.

It was on May 28, 2025, that Long Island Rail Road locomotive engineers’ head Kevin Sexton, speaking at a meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, first warned of the potential for the first LIRR union strike in more than three decades. MTA managers would have to come to the table with an offer that "reflects the value, skill and sacrifice of the workers who keep the railroad running every day."

At the time, MTA chairman Janno Lieber largely dismissed the threat, saying, ‘We don’t see that happening in the near-term." He suggested the five unions, representing about half the LIRR’s 7,000-member organized workforce, would ultimately fall in line and take the same deal ratified by "other, larger Long Island Rail Road unions."

Less than a year later, on the third day of a work stoppage that sent tens of thousands of Long Islanders scrambling to get to work and back home with the nation’s largest commuter railroad shut down, Lieber stood beside Gov. Kathy Hochul as she announced a deal once widely considered unfathomable: Giving workers raises of 4.5% in a fourth contract year, with only modest concessions.

John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union — the MTA’s largest labor organization, representing more than 40,000 city bus and subway workers — called it "a big win" for the LIRR labor leaders, and for transit unions throughout the state who hope the new contract means bigger raises for them.

"Hochul used everything in her power to break them. And they resisted and brought home a respectable contract," Samuelsen said in an interview. "They handled the holding together of that coalition exceptionally well. They spoke in unity. ... And that was very important."

Rift between unions

The historic labor fight grew out of a rift between the five smaller unions — the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, the International Association of Machinists, the Transportation Communication Union and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — and the LIRR’s largest union, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers.

For more than 20 years, SMART general chairman Anthony Simon had taken the lead on all LIRR labor negotiations, including in the eleventh-hour deal struck with then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo that averted a strike in 2014.

In 2023, Simon signed off on a new three-year contract that gave members raises of 3%, 3% and 3.5% per year — the same terms as had been accepted by other MTA unions, including those representing bus and subway workers.

But the five smaller unions, who later dubbed themselves the LIRR Bargaining Coalition, held out for more, arguing that raises averaging out to just over 3% annually did not keep up with the skyrocketing cost of living, nor with raises being given at other railroads throughout the United States.

Simon did not respond to a request for comment.

The unions demanded a fourth contract year with a raise of 6.5%. MTA leaders, saying such a deal would break the pattern set with other unions, initially resisted adding a year to the contract, but eventually offered a fourth year at 3% earlier this year.

For wage increases above that, the MTA said repeatedly unions would have to agree to major concessions, including doing away with costly work rules and restrictions, such as paying engineers double if they operate an electric and diesel train on the same shift, and forcing clerks to take on extra duties outside of ticket sale windows.

The unions lowered their demands to 5% in a fourth contract year, but with no concessions. After coming up to a first strike deadline in September, unions requested two White House interventions allowed under federal labor law. They were buoyed when the emergency mediation boards both found the unions’ proposal to be more reasonable than the MTA's.

As the clock ticked toward a final strike deadline of May 16 at 12:01 a.m., one union insider, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations before the contracts are ratified, said the eventual settlement — with a 4.5% raise in a fourth year and minor concessions — was there to be made on May 15 before the strike, but MTA officials could not get Hochul to give final approval for the deal, which was finally closed the night of May 18.

In exchange for the 4.5% raise, the unions agreed to extend the final year of their contract by six weeks, to undergo up to 16 hours of computer-based training each year outside of work hours and using their personal electronic devices — saving the MTA on overtime costs from having to backfill jobs while workers are in classroom training — and to switch to fully electronic paychecks — saving the MTA on some costs related to distributing paper checks, according to the union source.

Hochul's office did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

In announcing the agreement outside of the MTA's Manhattan headquarters, Hochul said the deal achieved two key goals: "protecting affordability for Long Islanders and commuters, while giving fair wages to employees."

With concessions, about 4%

Although the unions are selling the agreement to members as a 4.5% raise in the fourth year, some labor leaders disputed that figure, arguing the concessions — particularly the one extending the length of the contract — dilutes its value. Samuelsen, the New York City bus and subway union head, estimated that without the givebacks the agreement would be worth the equivalent of about 4% in raises for his members. Another labor source, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, estimated it at 3.8% and believes earlier offers made by the MTA may have been worth more.

Some workers also lost up to three days’ wages in the strike, although many would have been off anyway during the first two days of the work stoppage — a Saturday and Sunday.

Still, Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University, believes the unions scored "just a massive, big win" in securing a 4.5% wage increase, when the MTA had been insisting on giving workers extra compensation in the form of a lump-sum payment.

Wheaton said, in seeing the contract fight through to a three-day strike that didn’t cause "long-standing damage," the union leaders signaled to their members, "We got the best we could and we used all of the tools in our toolbox to get there."

One MTA official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the deal before it's finalized, said one "win" for the transit authority was raising the public’s awareness of the LIRR collective bargaining process, and of "archaic work rules" that can significantly pad worker pay.

The source said he hopes the strike will lead to a "public conversation" about what it would take to get LIRR workers to be covered under the state’s Taylor Law, which prohibits strikes. LIRR union contracts are currently regulated by the federal Railway Labor Act, which allows for work stoppages.

"Leveraging absolute public calamity is a really huge bargaining chip," the source said.

June ratification vote

The unions expect to put the contract up for a ratification vote sometime in June, with the hope of having the MTA Board give final approval later in the summer. Union officials said the feedback so far from members has been largely positive. Some wanted leaders to hold out for a better deal, even if it meant being out of work longer. Others who initially believed labor leaders should have taken the same three-year pact made with the other unions are now glad they held out as long as they did.

"I wouldn’t say there was a knockout by either side," one Transportation Communication Union member said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive union politics. The worker wondered if the unions would have done just as well, or better, if it had worked with SMART on a contract extension. "And there wouldn't have been a strike."

Samuelsen said the deal secured by the railroad unions now becomes the template for his own union’s negotiations with the MTA, and could make wage increases of 4% or more the new standard. MTA leaders, citing differences in the structures of union contracts, have disputed that the LIRR deal sets a precedent to be followed by other labor organizations.

In shutting down the LIRR for 3½ days, and securing the largest raises for LIRR workers he could remember, Samuelsen said the LIRR labor leaders, and particularly the locomotive engineers' union, "exercised their muscles properly."

"It's just like with pilots in an airline. If the pilots don't show up for work, the airline can't run. If the train driver doesn't show up for work, the railroad can't run," Samuelsen said. "And that is a tremendous amount of power."