LIRR unions at 'impasse' with management after rejecting 9.5% raise over 3 years

A group of Long Island Rail Road labor leaders who have held out for more favorable contracts than what other LIRR unions accepted said negotiations with management are at a standstill, and that without a resolution, a work stoppage similar to the one that recently shut down NJ Transit could be on the horizon.

While federal law allows LIRR unions to go on strike, labor and Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said such a move would be a last resort that would come only after all other options have been exhausted, potentially years from now.

Kevin Sexton, a spokesman for five labor organizations representing about half all LIRR union workers, said the "impasse" comes as management refuses to budge off a three-year, 9.5% raise offer that workers "cannot and will not accept," he told the MTA Board last week at its meeting.

"Do not let this workforce fall further behind," said Sexton, the national vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, which represents LIRR train operators. "Fund a fair contract, one that is not concessionary and that properly reflects the value, skill and sacrifice of the workers who keep the railroad running every day."

Sexton urged the MTA to settle the contracts "before we end up in a situation similar to what happened on New Jersey Transit," referencing the work stoppage that shut down New Jersey’s commuter rail system for three days last month.

MTA officials declined to comment on the ongoing negotiations, but authority chairman and CEO Janno Lieber noted to reporters after a May board meeting that even after the National Mediation Board wraps up its attempts to broker a deal, "there’s a whole other long, lengthy process before anybody could do anything like a job action."

That process includes, if necessary, the White House impaneling a Presidential Emergency Board of mediators to help resolve the dispute, as it did during the LIRR’s last prolonged labor dispute in 2014.

"We don’t see [a work stoppage] happening in the near-term, but we’re going to continue to negotiate with those unions to resolve [the contracts], as we have with the other larger Long Island Rail Road unions," Lieber said.

The alliance of LIRR labor organizations has been in federal mediation since January 2024, after breaking ranks with a separate coalition of unions that settled on a three-year contract with annual raises of 3% in the first two years and 3.5% in the third.

The MTA has said the unions that settled their contracts make up just over half — 50.066% — of the LIRR’s 6,869 represented workers, and set a pattern for other unions to follow. The unions that have not settled have disputed that figure and say they represent 55% of LIRR employees. They’ve also rejected the notion that they should follow the pattern set by other LIRR unions and noted that unions representing workers at other railroads, including in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and with Amtrak, have in recent years negotiated higher wage increases for members.

Sexton would not disclose the contract terms sought by the unions he represents but noted his workers have not seen raises since their last contract expired in April 2022. Given "record inflation" over the last three years, the 9.5% raises offered by the MTA "would amount to a real wage cut," he said.

LIRR locomotive engineers make about $50 per hour, according to the railroad. That works out to about $2,000 in a 40-hour work week and $104,000 annually, without overtime and additional wages.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.