{"id":799802,"date":"2026-05-16T04:43:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/799802\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T04:43:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:43:18","slug":"long-island-rail-road-workers-go-on-strike-after-mta-unions-fail-to-reach-new-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/799802\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Island Rail Road workers go on strike after MTA, unions fail to reach new contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tens of thousands of commuters in southeastern New York will be impacted as the Long Island Rail Road shuts down due to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/newyork\/news\/possible-lirr-strike-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">strike<\/a>\u00a0over contract negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>The strike stems from an inability to reach a deal on a new\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/newyork\/news\/lirr-strike-2026-update-negotiations-mta\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">four-year contract<\/a>. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and unions agreed to the terms of the first three years, but disputes arose about the final year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The union was looking for a 5% pay increase. The MTA said they were offering a 3% raise with options that could bring it up to 4.5%, provided some work rules concessions are made.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>MTA officials previously said the 5% hike will mean higher fares systemwide, including the subways, buses and Metro-North.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mta.info\/article\/lirr-strike-may-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">LIRR<\/a> is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, carrying about 250,000 passengers each weekday, according to its website.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Will ticketholders be refunded?<\/p>\n<p>The LIRR website stated that there will be prorated refunds issued to May monthly ticket holders for the days the strike is impacting the train.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Details on how to apply for a refund will be released, the website said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Headaches and more traffic gridlocks&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>More than 250,000 people ride the LIRR every day, so a strike means they have to find another way to get to work.<\/p>\n<p>Jason Russell, a SUNY Empire professor, said commuters will likely use their cars or work from home.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But working remotely only really applies to about 40% of workers, so it will mean headaches and more traffic gridlocks in the short term,&#8221; he said.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>LIRR shuttle bus service during strike<\/p>\n<p>A bus service will run from five places on Long Island to take riders to subway stations in Queens.<\/p>\n<p>Buses will run from the following LIRR stations and take commuters to the Howard Beach-JFK Airport A train station:<\/p>\n<p>Buses will run from the following LIRR stations to the Jamaica-179th Street F train stop:<\/p>\n<p>The agency is also encouraging people to use\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nicebus.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">NICE Bus<\/a>\u00a0service to Flushing, Main Street and the Jamaica Bus Terminal, which are both near subway entrances. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Riders are also encouraged to work from home during the strike, if possible.  \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, there is no substitute for the Long Island Rail Road, and its shutdown will cause severe congestion and delays,&#8221; the LIRR website stated. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tens of thousands of commuters in southeastern New York will be impacted as the Long Island Rail Road&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":799803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,133977,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-799802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-long-island-rail-road","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkcity","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116582429940334597","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}