A potential Lirr Strike could shut down Long Island Rail Road service as early as Saturday, putting the daily commute of more than 300,000 riders at risk. The five unions representing more than 3,500 LIRR employees said talks had stalled and they were prepared to walk out if no deal is reached.
Negotiations between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the unions were expected to resume this week, but the two sides remain far apart on pay. Union leaders are demanding a 5% raise, while the MTA has offered 3%.
Janno Lieber said the agency cannot afford a higher wage increase without pushing fares up or cutting service elsewhere, a position that has hardened the standoff. Transit officials warned that if a strike begins Saturday, trains would stop running entirely, leaving riders to find another way into and out of the city.
The MTA said it would urge commuters to avoid nonessential travel and work from home if possible. For essential workers and people who cannot telecommute, the agency said it would run limited weekday shuttle buses about every 10 minutes from major stations including Mineola, Ronkonkoma, Hicksville, Huntington and Bayshore to transit hubs in Queens such as the Jamaica-179th Street subway station and the Howard Beach-JFK Airport station, where riders would have to use the subway system to finish their trips.
The dispute is the latest chapter in an ongoing wage fight between the MTA and the five unions that represent LIRR workers. The railroad is one of the region’s most heavily used transit links, and the MTA said there is no substitute for it, warning that a shutdown would bring severe congestion and delays across the commuter network.
That is why Saturday matters. If the two sides do not bridge the gap before then, the region’s busiest commuter railroad will go silent and the fallback plan will be a patchwork of buses and subway transfers that cannot come close to replacing it.
