Mon | Sep 15, 2025

New York’s commuter rail system averts possible strike as unions ask Trump for help

Published:Monday | September 15, 2025 | 2:54 PM
An Atlantic Terminal bound LIRR train arrives at the Nostrand Avenue station, July 9, 2017, in New York.
(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
An Atlantic Terminal bound LIRR train arrives at the Nostrand Avenue station, July 9, 2017, in New York.

NEW YORK (AP) — A potential strike has been averted that could have shut down the nation’s largest commuter rail system this week.

Unionised workers for the Long Island Railroad announced they voted overwhelmingly Monday to authorize their labour leaders to call a strike if an agreement on a new contract isn’t reached.

But officials representing locomotive engineers, machinists, signalmen and other train workers said they’ve also asked President Donald Trump to intercede by forming an emergency board that delays the potential for a strike at least for a few more months.

Union leaders said the earliest a strike could happen is in January while the Presidential Emergency Board, once formed, reviews the contract dispute and presents its recommendations.

A strike, which could have happened as early as Thursday under federal rules, would have impacted some 250,000 riders who ride the LIRR to work each day to and from New York City and its eastern suburbs.

A work stoppage would have also thrown a wrench in the Ryder Cup, which begins September 26.

The three-day men’s golf tournament between players from the US and Europe is expected to bring 225,000 spectators to Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale on Long Island.

“This action does not mean a strike won’t happen, but it does mean it won’t happen now,” said Gil Lang, general chairman for the union representing LIRR locomotive engineers, at a news conference at the union’s office in Manhattan on Monday.

“We will continue to be the adults in the room,” he added. “A strike is the last thing we want, and we’ll do everything we can to avoid that.”

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the LIRR and other area transit systems, dismissed the union’s announcement as a “cynical delay” that “serves no one.”

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