Posts tagged LIRR
NYC hotel maids now make more than rookie cops, firefighters, teachers — as union averts strike following new salary agreement
May 27, 2026 // Hotel maids in NYC already out-earn rookie cops, firefighters and even teachers with master’s degrees — and they just got a raise. The Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, the union representing 22,000 city hotel workers, ratified the new contract Thursday that will bring housekeepers to $77,113 on July 1 with $110,000 in salary alone in the sixth year. The agreement made last weekend with the hotel owners averted a strike that was already throwing a wrench into the city’s America 250 celebrations and the FIFA World Cup as visitors said they were afraid to make reservations if a strike was at hand.
Reason: Union Summer
May 21, 2026 // They're at it again: Yesterday, the unions representing the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) workers reached an agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs the railroad. It's not yet clear what's in the agreement, but the demands of the striking workers were rather extraordinary: Pay raises of 5 percent, plus three years of retroactive raises since their last contract was hammered out in 2022. This might make sense if they were destitute, but they are not: "More than 325 Long Island Rail Road workers are raking in over $100,000 a year in overtime on top of their lucrative salaries, with 11 of them netting at least twice that huge figure in OT," reports New York Post (below yesterday's perfect headline: "Gravy Train").
Op-ed: This LIRR Strike Should Be the Last
May 20, 2026 // Public employees in New York do not have the right to strike. The RLA, however, supersedes state law, effectively granting the railroad’s workers this right. Much has changed over a century, and this exception should no longer apply. In 1966, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority absorbed the LIRR, making the railroad a public employer. In 1980, federal courts rejected an attempt to enforce New York’s strike prohibition, in part because the LIRR was still hauling freight at that time. It no longer does. Nonetheless, the federal exemption has proved a powerful tool for the LIRR’s unions. Each time their labor contracts come up for negotiation, these groups threaten LIRR riders, and New York governors, with stoppages. They’ve carried out the threat before, most recently in 1987 and 1994.
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.
No LIRR strike for at least 4 months as Trump steps in on labor dispute
September 17, 2025 // The emergency board will probe the contract fight and prevent and mediate negotiations under the Railway Labor Act, which triggers a 120-day “cooling off period.” That means neither the MTA nor the unions can change wages, hours or working conditions — and workers cannot legally strike — for roughly four months unless both sides agree to a deal.
Opinion: Hochul must shame LIRR unions —by revealing their outrageous strike demands
September 15, 2025 // The agency’s overtime spending regularly stands out by national standards (only periodically rivaled by the MTA’s other big rail outfit, Metro-North, which is stuck operating under the federal law that governs the LIRR). LIRR employees in 2023 made an average of more than $26,000 each in overtime alone.