Nearly six hundred locomotive engineers employed by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) received ballots in the mail last week from the national union seeking authorization to call a strike at the nation’s busiest commuter railroad.
LIRR’s locomotive engineers, members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), have been without a pay raise for over three years, the last coming on April 16, 2022. The contract dispute has been in National Mediation Board-sponsored mediation since February 2024.
The BLET is bargaining in a coalition alongside 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). Combined, the coalition represents more than half (55.08%) of the unionized workforce at LIRR.
Gil Lang, General Chairman for the BLET’s LIRR engineers, said management has only made concessionary contract offers that would result in a loss of real wages for BLET members.
“We are only asking for a fair contract — one that provides modest wage gains, or at the very least, maintains real wages,” Lang said. “Our members would not ratify anything short of that.”
NMB released the coalition from mediation on August 18, triggering a 30-day cooling off period under the Railway Labor Act. At the end of the cooling off period, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, or one of the parties to the dispute, could request that the Trump administration intervene and form a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) to help avert a strike.
Note to LIRR members: BLET members working for LIRR should have received a mailing from the BLET National Division over the last week with voting instructions. The deadline for receipt of ballots is at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Monday, September 15, 2025. Members who are eligible and have not received a strike authorization packet by September 8 should call the National Division at (216) 241-2630, extension 222. When connected with the extension, please leave the following information:
- Your name, address, and phone number;
- The Division to which you belong;
- The railroad you work for;
- The date you were promoted to locomotive engineer;
- Your date of birth; and
- The last four digits of your Social Security number.
All replacement ballots will be distributed by email. Any member who requires a replacement ballot must include their email address in the voicemail; otherwise, they will not be able to participate in the strike authorization vote.
BLET locomotive engineers operate 947 daily trains at LIRR, carrying approximately 250,000 customers each week day.
Photo by Dave Levene, BLET Division 269