Posts tagged Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
Unions that paralyzed New York commute over pay spent millions on luxury travel, filings show
May 21, 2026 // The disclosures offer a window into how the unions spent money on travel, conferences and event venues during the same year they argued workers were being squeezed by rising costs. The strike disrupted hundreds of thousands of daily riders and cost the region an estimated $61 million per day. LM-2 forms are annual financial disclosure reports that labor unions file with the Department of Labor, detailing receipts, disbursements, officer payments and other spending. Fox News Digital reviewed 2025 LM-2 forms filed with the Labor Department by the five unions involved in the LIRR strike, identifying payments to hotels that market themselves as premium, resorts, casinos and restaurants where menu prices sit above typical casual dining costs.
LIRR resumes trains after tentative deal ends three-day strike
May 19, 2026 // A deal was reached just before 9 p.m. Monday after intense negotiations throughout the weekend. The strike officially ended at midnight, but train service didn't resume until noon Tuesday. The MTA's strike contingency plan remained in effect for Tuesday's morning rush, including the limited free shuttle bus service.
New Yorkers bracing for commuter chaos as LIRR workers remain on strike
May 17, 2026 // MTA Chairman Janno Lieber told reporters Sunday that the MTA refuses to make a deal that forces riders and taxpayers to fund wage increases for workers who, he contended, are already the highest-paid railroad employees in the nation. Nearly 300,000 daily commuters are affected by the strike, according to the MTA.
Long Island Rail Road Strike Looms, as M.T.A. and Unions Reach Impasse
April 13, 2026 // Five unions representing more than 3,500 workers have threatened for months to walk off the job unless they receive bigger raises than other divisions of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs the railroad. The unions, which represent engineers, machinists, signalmen and other jobs critical to the rail operation, are seeking a retroactive 9.5 percent wage increase covering the last three years — the same offered to many other New York transit and civil servant unions. But they also want an additional 5 percent raise starting in 2026. The M.T.A. has argued that such a divergence in pay would upset the typical pattern for wage increases established with other groups, and would not be feasible unless the unions compromised on other aspects of the contract.
100% of Rail Union Political Advocacy Dollars Went to Left-Wing Organizations
January 27, 2026 // Now, labor leaders requested a newly penned Executive Order from President Trump mandating a board mediate disputes between unions associated with the Long Island Railroad, including BLET, and the New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority in order to avoid a strike. “The Teamsters union and its president, Sean O’Brien, continually make a show of crossing party lines and working with the current president,” said CUF communications director Charlyce Bozzello. “Don’t let their rhetoric fool you. The Teamsters’ own political advocacy skews almost completely to the left, and now we know the same is true for its major affiliates.”
Freight rail engineers vote in favor of new contract
January 5, 2026 // According to the BLET, 70 percent of its more than 12,000 members voted approved the five-year agreement. The union says the contract addresses rates of pay and other issues and that there were no concessions or work rule changes in the new agreement. The contract covers BLET employees with major freight railroads, including Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, Norfolk Southern Railway Co. (NS) and Canadian National.
2 big rail unions oppose $85B Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger over safety and cost concerns
December 18, 2025 // The unions’ decision they plan to announce Wednesday will make the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division two of the most prominent critics of the deal to create the nation’s first transcontinental railroad. They join the American Chemistry Council, an assortment of agricultural groups and competing railroad BNSF in raising concerns that this combination would hurt competition. But the deal has picked up the support of the nation’s largest rail union that represents conductors and hundreds of individual shippers as well as an Oval Office endorsement from President Donald Trump.
Trump administration slow-plays decision on expanding automated railroad inspection technology
November 18, 2025 // “The idea is, that while the train is in normal operations, this system is constantly scanning the track for defects, so the waiver would allow the use of this technology,” he stated. “The Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center, which is their kind of in-house think tank, has been clamoring for exactly this type of thing for decades, and now the technology has arrived that allows carriers to actually do it.” Scribner noted that the Biden administration was sued multiple times by rail carriers for, like Trump, slow- walking automated track inspection waivers, claiming that was “a situation where Railway Labor had had really captured a safety regulatory agency, which should be very, very concerning to the American public.”
Long Island Railroad Unionized Employees Are Ready to Strike on September 18
September 9, 2025 // Five unions could participate in the strike, representing about half of LIRR’s 7,000 employees. Two groups – the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers – began voting this week to organize the protest, while two others – the Transportation Communications Union and the International Association of Machinists – had already decided to do so a month ago. It is unclear whether the fifth and final union, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, will join the initiative. A month ago, the unions rejected an offer of a 9.5% pay increase over three years, which had been agreed upon by some LIRR and MTA employees.
Two unions announce opposition to UP-NS merger (revised)
July 30, 2025 // Two unions — the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, and the Transport Workers Union of America — have announced their opposition to the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger proposed today by the two railroads. SMART said it will oppose the merger when it goes to the Surface Transportation Board for approval, while the TWU — which represents some Norfolk Southern workers — said it “strongly opposes” the deal and is urging regulators, lawmakers, shippers and unions to block the transaction. Other unions have also expressed concern about the creation of a coast-to-coast railroad that would cover more than 52,000 miles and employ more than 52,000 people, although few have done so in language as strong as that of TWU International President John Samuelsen. In a statement, he called UP’s safety record “shameful” and said, “There is no world where Union Pacific should be controlling a coast-to-coast rail network.