Asks for Federal Mediation Board; MTA Calls Tactic a ‘Cynical Delay’
By Hank Russell
The union representing Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) engineers has decided not to go on strike this week. Rather, they are calling on President Donald Trump to bring in a National Mediation Board.
As previously reported in Long Island Life & Politics, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen was bargaining in a coalition alongside the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS), the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and the Transportation Communications Union (TCU). Combined, the coalition represents more than half (55.08%) of the unionized workforce at LIRR.
BLET members at the nation’s busiest commuter railroad, along with the members of four other rail unions, have been without a pay raise for over three years, LILP previously reported. The LIRR offered a 9% pay raise over three years, but BLET wanted an additional 6.5%.
According to the LIRR, a possible strike would have affected 270,000 daily riders.
ABC News reported that 99% of the unionized 529 LIRR engineers voted for the strike, but BLET is calling on the federal government to intervene. If an agreement is not reached by May 2026, the engineers will walk off the job.
Governor Kathy Hochul decried the Trump administration’s involvement. She also cited the “continued inaction and silence” of Congressmen Nick LaLota (R-Rocky Point) and Andrew Garbarino (R-Patchogue).
“The reckless actions of the Trump administration’s National Mediation Board pushed this dispute toward a strike instead of keeping talks on track,” Hochul said in a statement. “Make no mistake, this is a strike encouraged by Donald Trump and enabled by his allies in Washington.”
“They were never serious about any of this,” BLET National Vice President Kevin Sexton said during a September 15 press conference. “It was, ‘We [LIRR] reached a deal with another union. If you want more, pay for it.’”
“We are only asking for a fair contract — one that provides modest wage gains, or at the very least, maintains real wages,” Gil Lang, the general chairman for the BLET’s LIRR engineers, added, according to ABC News. “Our members would not ratify anything short of that.”
In response, John McCarthy, MTA’s chief of policy and external relations, said in a statement, “After months of radio silence, these outlier unions have finally admitted that they weren’t serious about negotiating. They never had a plan to resolve this at the bargaining table. If these unions wanted to put riders first, they would either settle or agree to binding arbitration. And if they don’t want to strike, they should say so — and finally show up to the negotiating table. This cynical delay serves no one.”