With no deal reached by midnight, Long Island Rail Road workers went on strike, leaving Uniondale and Hempstead commuters scrambling for alternate ways to get to work and appointments as service disruptions rippled across Nassau County and the rest of Long Island.
The strike affects unions representing signalmen, electricians, clerks, machinists and locomotive engineers, impacting thousands of workers and disrupting travel for nearly 300,000 daily riders.
Uniondale residents who rely on the Long Island Rail Road often use nearby stations such as Hempstead, West Hempstead or Carle Place, depending on where they live.
With train service halted, many commuters were forced to look for other ways to reach New York City and other parts of Nassau County.
Riders were urged to consider NICE Bus service as an alternative connection to subway stations in Queens and Far Rockaway.
“I need to take the bus now, i'm never going to drive into the city," Hempstead resident Jonathan Kersh said at the Hempstead station."It's something I avoided for years because of the tolls, parking and congestion pricing.
Kersh, a paralegal in midtown Manhattan, said he asked to work remotely, but his position sometimes requires him to be in person for court filings. Meetings, he said, can be moved to Zoom.
“I’m not the only one who works on the Island," he said. "They will let some of us stay remote because they understand."
Christopher Simpson, 25, who recently moved from Uniondale to nearby Oyster Bay, said he relies on the Long Island Rail Road to get to work in the Bronx and Brooklyn, where he teaches after-school STEM programs and also works occasional warehouse jobs.
Simpson said he usually takes trains from Hempstead, Freeport, Baldwin or Mineola, depending on the schedule. His commute already takes about two hours to the Bronx, and between one hour and half and two hours to Brooklyn.
As the LIRR service stopped, Simpson said he would have to take a bus from Nassau County to Queens, then transfer to the subway. His commute he said will be one hour longer than usual – he would need to leave around 10 a.m. instead of noon.
“It will take a lot longer, but I gotta get to work,” Simpson said. "The subway isn't the best either so I need to be prepared incase of delays."
He explained the lack of transparency the LIRR had with Long Island residents as he didn't hear about the strike until this week.
"Instead of having to take the subway, I can get a ride from my friends who have cars," Simpson said.
Kevin Sexton, vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and spokesperson for the Long Island Rail Road Bargaining Coalition, said the unions were forced to strike after negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority broke down following two days of round-the-clock talks.
“Regrettably, as of 12:01 a.m. this morning, we are striking the Long Island Railroad,” Sexton said at a news conference. “This was a management-provoked strike, as far as we are concerned.”
As negotiations stretched toward Friday night’s midnight deadline at MTA headquarters, the two sides remained divided over salary increases during the final year of the proposed contract. Union leaders representing locomotive engineers, electricians, signal workers, machinists and clerks sought a 5 percent raise in the fourth year, while the MTA increased its proposal from 3 percent and included part of the compensation as a lump-sum payment.
Sexton said tensions worsened late in negotiations when the railroad introduced proposed health care contributions for newly hired employees, an issue he said had not previously been part of bargaining discussions.
“Late in the 11th hour, the railroad decided to throw health care contributions for new employees, which was never discussed in bargaining,” he said.
Sexton added that another bargaining session had not yet been scheduled and said he did not know how long the strike would last.
Michael Sullivan, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, also criticized the MTA’s handling of negotiations.
“This strike did not have to happen,” Sullivan said. “The men and women represented by this coalition followed every step of the legal process and prevailed before two independent expert boards.”
Union members began picketing at 7 a.m. Saturday at key locations, including the Ronkonkoma station and Penn Station, according to Sexton.
The strike involves unions representing signalmen, electricians, clerks, machinists and locomotive engineers, affecting thousands of workers and disrupting travel for hundreds of thousands of daily riders.
MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said the agency could not agree to a deal that would significantly impact the authority’s finances.
“We cannot and will not do a deal that shifts huge costs to our riders by forcing fare hikes,” Lieber said in a statement following the strike announcement.
In response to the shutdown, the MTA activated a contingency plan that includes limited weekday shuttle bus service for essential workers and commuters unable to work remotely.
Shuttle buses are operating during peak commuting hours between six Long Island locations — Bay Shore, Hempstead Lake State Park near the Lakeview train station, Hicksville, Huntington, Mineola and Ronkonkoma — and subway connection points in Queens, including the Howard Beach-JFK Airport A train station and the Jamaica-179 Street F train station.
Nassau County riders were also urged to consider NICE Bus service as an alternative connection to subway stations in Queens.
Gov. Kathy Hochul criticized the strike Saturday, saying the shutdown would place additional burdens on riders and taxpayers across Long Island and New York City.
“The decision by some unions to strike over demands that would threaten that progress is reckless,” Hochul said in a statement. “These unions represent the highest paid workers of any railroad in the nation, yet they are demanding contracts that could raise fares as much as 8%, pit workers against one another, and risk tax hikes for Long Islanders. This is unacceptable.”
State Sen. Siela A. Bynoe said the strike would create major hardships for Long Island commuters, businesses and families.
“Business owners and families across Long Island depend on public transportation, and the strike will cause economic and personal hardship,” Bynoe said in a statement.
The last Long Island Rail Road strike occurred on June 17, 1994, and lasted two days before a contract settlement was reached. Another strike was narrowly avoided in 2014.
