NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) — New York’s Long Island Rail Road, the biggest commuter line in the US, is facing a potential strike next week as locomotive engineers currently vote on whether to authorize a work stoppage — and Governor Kathy Hochul is blaming President Donald Trump for the growing crisis.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, which represents about 600 workers at the LIRR, have rejected a proposed 9.5% pay increase, according to John J. McCarthy, chief of policy and external relations at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the LIRR. The 9.5% raise would occur over three years, similar to agreements with its subway and bus workers.
If approved, the strike could begin as soon as Sept. 18. Hochul or the MTA could ask the Trump administration to convene a presidential emergency board to extend talks and avert a shutdown. The governor on Wednesday declined to say if she would make that request, but pointed to the federal National Mediation Board’s decision last month to release the parties from mandatory mediation, which allows the union to strike if it chooses.
“The White House already intervened and they screwed us in the process, right?” Hochul told reporters Wednesday at Grand Central Terminal during a press conference on the recent decrease in subway crime. “They never should have given license to stop the negotiations. They never should have shut it down and said, ‘that’s enough.’”
Halting all LIRR service would severely disrupt commutes and commerce across Suffolk and Nassau counties, home to nearly 3 million people. The LIRR serves about 250,000 weekday passengers across more than 900 daily trains, according to the MTA. The dispute follows a three-day walkout by New Jersey Transit locomotive engineers in May that cut service between New Jersey and New York City.
The average salary in 2024 for a full-time LIRR engineer was $167,488, including overtime, per the Empire Center for Public Policy, a nonprofit group that promotes free-market principles.
Janno Lieber, the MTA’s chief executive officer, has criticized some of LIRR’s work practices, such as engineers receiving two days’ pay if they operate both diesel and electric trains on the same day. “We have to stick up for the riders,” he said at a recent press conference.
The BLET is collaborating with four other unions that represent nearly half of LIRR’s employees. They’re seeking wages that better match the rate of inflation. The engineers have been working without salary increases since April 2022 and the union has been negotiating with the MTA since February of last year.
The MTA is preparing for all contingencies, according to Lieber. This includes running temporary buses between Long Island and New York City subway stations, an MTA spokesperson said. The last LIRR strike was in 1994.
“If the worst scenario occurs, I want this entire community to know that this was initiated by the Trump White House,” Hochul said. “They could have stopped it. They still can withdraw that authorization.”
A White House representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
--With assistance from Skylar Woodhouse.
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