Coalition of LIRR Rail Unions Call on the White House to Appoint a Second Presidential Emergency Board to Help Settle Ongoing Contract Dispute with MTA

Strike Avoided for Now at America’s Busiest Commuter Railroad 

NEW YORK  –  A  coalition of five rail unions at the Long Island Rail Road have written to the White House to formally request that a second Presidential Emergency Board be appointed to resolve a nearly three-year contract dispute with the MTA.  

The Railway Labor Act, the century-old law that controls labor relations at railroads and airlines, includes a provision for a second PEB when the disputes involve commuter railroads. The federal law allows labor, management or New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to ask the White House to intervene. The first PEB also was requested by rail labor. 

In October, that appointed panel composed of three experts made recommendations which found labor’s position both more reasonable than the MTA/LIRR overreach and the union’s wage proposals a fair reflection of the rising cost of living on Long Island.  

“Our coalition’s proposals are not extreme, and they are supported by the findings of the first PEB,” said Michael Sullivan of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen. In its report, the board recommended raises of 14% over four years along with other improvements.

 “We felt compelled to request a second PEB because of LIRR and the MTA’s refusal to bargain in good faith,” said Gilman Lang, the General Chairman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen at the LIRR. “During this entire process the employer has chosen delay, obstruction and political maneuvering over meaningful negotiation and resolution.”  No direct negotiations between labor and management have been held since July 2025.

Today’s request to the White House will start a clock ticking. The new PEB will make its report in approximately 60 days, in mid-March. If those recommendations are not accepted or a voluntary settlement isn’t reached over the next two months between LIRR management and the coalition of labor unions, a 60-day cooling off period will begin. Under the rules of the Railway Labor Act, if no settlement is reached at the end of the 60 days in mid-May, the coalition of unions would then be permitted to legally go on strike or MTA could lock out its workers. The Railway Labor Act does not contain a provision for a third PEB.

“We didn’t agree with everything in the first PEB, known as Presidential Emergency Board  253, but those recommendations should have been used as the foundation for further negotiations,” said National Vice President of the Transportation Communications Union Nick Peluso. “We are only asking for what’s fair and consistent with agreements reached across the rail industry.” 

The Railway Labor Act favors management. The law is designed to keep trains running and avoid strikes. But this management and this governor have flipped the script by trying to provoke a strike by failing to ask for a PEB last year and again this week. A request for a PEB by management would have automatically kept trains running and avoided a strike, instead neither Governor Hochul nor MTA requested a PEB. LIRR management through press releases, flyers left on train seats and signage, stirred up strike fears last fall. 

“The Carrier’s recent conduct has been deliberate,” said Jeff Klein, the General Chairman for IBEW at LIRR. “Faced with its own failures at the bargaining table, the MTA/LIRR has chosen provocation over progress. Its goal is transparent: to push the workforce toward a strike.”

The members of five rail unions, comprising a majority of LIRR’s unionized workforce, have been without a pay raise for over three years, since April 2022, despite the rising cost of living on Long Island. 

The contract dispute between the employer and the coalition of rail unions has been in National Mediation Board-sponsored mediation since February 2024. NMB released the parties from mediation on August 18, triggering a 30-day cooling off period under the Railway Labor Act, ending at 1201 a.m. on Sept. 18. The labor coalition requested the first PEB at that time.

“Management should quit playing politics, meet with our five unions and hammer out a fair agreement, one that’s not concessionary, using the recommendations of the  Presidential Emergency Board as a basis for further negotiations,” said  IAM General Chairman – District 19 Shaun O’Connor.  “Let’s get this done, craft a new agreement and keep the trains running.”

The Long Island Railroad Bargaining Coalition includes the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS), the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and the Transportation Communications Union (TCU).