LIRR unions blast MTA over stalled bargaining talks, threaten strike in May: ‘The clock is ticking’

Long Island Rail Road union leaders and Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials finally returned to the bargaining table Wednesday after 40 days, but the session still ended with no deal in sight.

With less than three weeks until workers can legally walk off the job, leaders of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and four other labor unions appeared at an MTA board meeting and accused the agency of dodging talks toward the long-running contract dispute for weeks.

“The clock is ticking,” fumed Gilman Lang, general chairman of the engineers’ union.

LIRR workers are threatening to strike as early as May 16 if the MTA and the unions can’t reach an agreement. Christopher Sadowski

“Our members are prepared to strike.”

Lang told the board the five unions involved in the dispute, representing around 3,500 LIRR workers, were ready to iron out a deal, but the MTA refused to meet with them.

“The only thing preventing that is the MTA’s failure to act,” Lang said. “An agreement cannot be reached when one side refuses to come to the table.”

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber bristled at the criticism, snapping back, “Let’s go have a discussion.”

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber bristled at the unions’ assertion that MTA leaders have been unwilling to meet for a bargaining session. Brigitte Stelzer

He called the suggestion that the agency had been unwilling to negotiate “nonsense,” and later told reporters, “I call BS on that because we do want to meet with them.”

The two sides clashed after a virtual meeting with the National Mediation Board scheduled for Monday was postponed, which Lieber attributed to scheduling conflicts for the federal mediators.

“I don’t know that to be true,” Lang said after Lieber made his claim.

The dispute covers contracts that became amendable in 2023 and centers on wages and work rules for train workers.

LIRR workers want a 5% raise for 2026 to keep up with rising inflation. Christopher Sadowski

The sides have agreed on raises of 3% in 2023, 3% in 2024 and 3.5% in 2025, but remain apart on the unions request for a 5% pay raise in 2026.

Union leaders say they need higher wages to keep up with inflation.

MTA board finance chair Neal Zuckerman argued the private sector stiffs workers all the time over rising inflation.

“The private sector has not seen wage increases keeping up with inflation for about 20 years,” he said.

If workers strike as early as May 16, the MTA’s options for LIRR’s more than 250,000 daily riders are limited — with Lieber suggesting most riders could “work from home.”

The MTA has planned rush‑hour shuttle buses for essential workers from five Long Island stations into Queens, at a projected cost of roughly $325,000 to $550,000 per day.

But on the same day the MTA and union leaders fretted over an LIRR shutdown, the LIRR was barely functioning anyway.

Metal debris on the tracks caused a train to get stuck in the East River Tunnel around 6 a.m., forcing passengers to be evacuated by foot onto another train and leaving 8 of 11 train lines stalled or delayed.