LIRR unions, MTA to resume talks Monday morning | Live updates

The contract talks scheduled between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the coalition of five Long Island Rail Road unions will resume Monday afternoon in Bethpage.

The unions say despite a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m., Saturday May 16, the MTA has shown no sense of urgency.

"It's clear that the MTA's strategy up until now - if you can call it that -- is to deflect, distort, dither and denigrate. The May 16 strike date is approaching. It's time for management to get serious about negotiating wages," said Michael Sullivan, General Chairman --BRS.

More than a quarter million people ride the LIRR each day.

If there is a strike, the MTA would run free shuttle bus service from a limited number of LIRR stations -- Lakeview, Hicksville, Ronkonkoma, Mineola, and Huntington -- bringing riders to a subway station.

If there is a strike this weekend, it will mark the railroad's first strike in more than 30 years.

The last one happened back in 1994 and shut down service for two days.

Before that, there was a longer LIRR strike in 1987 that lasted 11 days.

Recent strike threats in 2025 were avoided through federal mediation.

Five unions representing 3,500 workers, including engineers, signalmen and trainmen, are threatening to strike on May 16.

The unions and LIRR have agreed to a retroactive 9.5% wage increase covering the last three years. But, the sticking point remains an additional 5% raise the workers want beginning this year.

The MTA says that's too high. The MTA has also pushed back about some of the lucrative penalty pay workers receive when tasked with certain jobs during a shift.

MTA officials say if they give LIRR workers what they are asking for, it could result in a fare hike as high as 8%.