{"id":808952,"date":"2026-05-20T03:28:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/808952\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T03:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:28:23","slug":"deal-to-end-lirr-strike-leaves-new-yorkers-squeezed-but-might-be-the-best-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/808952\/","title":{"rendered":"Deal to end LIRR strike leaves New Yorkers squeezed \u2014 but might be the best possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chalk up another overly generous contract deal for the Long Island Rail Road unions<\/a> \u2014 at the public\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n

The MTA and five holdout LIRR unions<\/a> <\/a>reached a deal Monday night, ending a crippling three-day strike and avoiding more turmoil, just as the region gets set for Memorial Weekend.<\/p>\n

More good news: Gov. Kathy Hochul claims the deal doesn\u2019t \u201ccompromise affordability for Long Islanders\u201d or \u201crequire any additional fare increases or tax increases.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cross your fingers she\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

The agreement was likely the best the public can hope for \u2014 given the union\u2019s ability to strangle the region with a strike, New York pols\u2019 heavy pro-labor tilt and that it\u2019s an election year.<\/p>\n

(Even Hochul\u2019s GOP rival, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, shamefully urged her to cave to the unions.) <\/p>\n

\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n

But the original hope was for the five unions to accept the same raises \u2014 totaling 9.5% over three years \u2014 all the other unions accepted.<\/p>\n

Instead, they demanded an outrageous 6% raise for a fourth year, then lowered the ask to a still-outrageous 5% and, though details are not fully available, reportedly wound up with a 4.5% boost, with just minor give-backs in exchange.<\/p>\n

That higher-than-inflation raise, by the way, is on top of salaries that already make them among the highest-paid rail workers in the nation.<\/p>\n

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And on top of obscene six-digit yearly overtime pay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And on top of bizarre work-rules that let them collect up to three days\u2019 pay for a single day\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Plus, their deal will set a pattern for the powerful Transport Workers Union. <\/p>\n

New Yorkers should hope this is the last time a measly 3,500 greedy union workers, serving 300,000 daily riders, are allowed to hold an entire region hostage by threatening a strike.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, though, the blackmail will continue until Congress fixes the federal Railway Labor Act, which, unlike New York\u2019s Taylor Law, lets LIRR workers take such job actions.<\/p>\n

New Yorkers who want to end such thuggery need to press their representatives \u2014 Hochul, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, local congressmen \u2014 to fix the Railway Labor Act.<\/p>\n

The Taylor Law, which outlaws strikes for most public-sector workers in New York, is there for a reason: Public services \u2014 like transportation \u2014 are simply too essential to allow them to be held at the mercy of self-interested unions.<\/p>\n

Without a federal fix, it\u2019s only a matter of time before the region finds itself facing the same extortion as it did this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chalk up another overly generous contract deal for the Long Island Rail Road unions \u2014 at the public\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":808953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,4691,5371,10209,122729,9904,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,1269,132202,98663,39749,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-808952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-editorial","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-lirr","tag-lirr-strike","tag-mta","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-opinion","tag-raises","tag-transport-workers-union","tag-unions","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116604784137050381","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808952","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=808952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}