MTA managers, making their case against Long Island Rail Road unions' demands for 14.5% raises over four years, say LIRR employees threatening to strike are already the highest-paid railroad workers in the nation.
But LIRR labor leaders argue both their pay and negotiating position are warranted given the high cost of living in New York and recent raises given at other railroads across the country. And they're prepared to walk off the job May 16 if their terms aren't met.
In response to questions from Newsday about how they determined LIRR workers are the highest paid in the United States, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority cited numbers showing wages at four key LIRR positions exceeded the median of the next five largest American commuter railroads.
Alfonso A. Castillo reports in NEWSDAY that signal inspectors had the biggest difference among the union positions threatening to strike, according to MTA figures. Their $50.89 top hourly pay in 2025 was 20.7% higher than the $42.17 median at the five other railroads — Metro-North, NJ Transit, Boston’s MBTA, Philadelphia’s SEPTA and Chicago’s Metra. The smallest difference was for LIRR locomotive engineers, whose $54.81 top hourly pay was 3.4% above the $53 median earned at the other railroads. The MTA has told mediators that median pay was $131,212 in 2024 for employees in the five unions. When including fringe benefits such as health insurance, the average compensation was $200,427 in 2024. For locomotive engineers, the highest paid, it was $241,397.
"They are the highest-paid railroad workers in the nation but have refused the same significant wage increases the vast majority of their colleagues accepted," MTA chief labor and employee relations officer Anita Miller said in a March statement.
LIRR union leaders said those figures give an incomplete picture. They noted for one position some other railroads pay more. Locomotive engineers at Metro-North and Amtrak can earn $59 an hour — $4 more than the LIRR, according to information provided by the unions.
More broadly, the unions say LIRR workers’ pay reflects the cost of living in the metropolitan area, which is among the highest in the nation.
When accounting for cost of living, and for special pay outside of regular wages — including for receiving special training — the unions have said several other railroads pay more. Those include Metro-North, NJ Transit, Baltimore’s MARC, Northern California’s Caltrain and Southern California’s Metrolink, the LIRR unions said.
Unions say recent raises given at other railroads were as much as 7%.
If no agreement is reached, LIRR unions are threatening to walk off the job Saturday, May 16, at 12:01 a.m.
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Employees at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma racked up more than $1 million in overtime in each of the past two years, a Newsday analysis found, costs that climbed amid a struggle to hire and retain security guards.
The Town of Islip, which runs the airport, paid more than $1.2 million in overtime for 75 airport employees last year, up from $1.09 million a year earlier. In 2023, the town paid $944,017 in overtime.
Sam Kmack reports in NEWSDAY that airport security guard staffing has fallen over the past several years. Islip Town employed 18 security guards at the end of 2019, and by the start of 2025, nine were employed, according to data provided by the town. Islip ended last year with 17 guards, following a mid-year push to boost staffing levels. The average base salary for a security guard last year was $67,469, town payroll records show.
Overtime pay in 2025 for a single guard reached a high of $110,154, records show. The airport's top five overtime earners were all within the airport's security division, and two guards more than doubled their salaries through overtime. Newsday obtained Islip's payroll records under the state's Freedom of Information Law.
Islip Town officials say federal minimum staffing requirements, and struggles to recruit and retain guards, contributed to the rising overtime expense.
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Tomorrow morning, Peconic Landing in Greenport will host its 20th Annual John May Mile and 5K Race to benefit the Greenport Fire Department.
The John May Mile and 5K fundraiser is open to runners and walkers of all ages and fitness abilities, offering both a relaxed mile-long walk and a more challenging 3.1-mile run. Registration and stretching begin at 7:30 a.m. at Brecknock Hall with the race and walk to start at 9 a.m. Runners and walkers may register at: www.peconiclanding.org/JMM.
The family-friendly event features a barbecue lunch, raffles, and more.
Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that since inception in 2005, the annual John May Mile and 5K has raised over $400,000 to support the local first responders. The most recent event in 2025 contributed a total of $28,570, helping to purchase and maintain rescue equipment vital to keeping Greenport Fire Department volunteers safe while responding to emergency calls.
Following the race will be an awards ceremony at 10:30 a.m. on the back lawn of Brecknock Hall.
To register as a runner or vendor, visit www.peconiclanding.org/jmm.
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The possibility of preserving the Peconic Farms property on Peconic Bay Boulevard in South Jamesport is off the table, a spokesperson for Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine told RiverheadLOCAL yesterday.
The owner of the 9.6-acre parcel, who had been negotiating with Suffolk County to sell the land for preservation as open space, notified the county real estate division late Wednesday that they were no longer interested in selling the land to the county, according to the county executive.
“This is a missed opportunity to preserve more farmland on the North Fork,” Romaine stated.
A portion of the site had been farmed, though the property was slated to be preserved as open space.
The owner has decided not to sell the property to Suffolk “as is their right,” Romaine said, adding, “We remain open to any further discussions in the future.”
Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the potential sale became a subject of local controversy last week, when County Legislator Greg Doroski asked the Riverhead Town Board to partner with the county in the acquisition by managing the property after its transfer to the county. It would be preserved as open space for passive recreation uses, he told Town Board members at last week’s work session.
Riverhead officials balked at the idea of recreational uses on the site, expressing concerns that it would be opened up to people from all over Suffolk seeking beach access. The parcel borders town-owned land along East Creek but does not have any direct access to the waterfront.
Residents in an adjoining neighborhood also objected to the idea of recreational uses on the property. They said they would support an open space purchase without any recreational uses.
The Riverhead Town Board on Tuesday adopted a resolution supporting an open space acquisition conditioned on there being no recreational use of the site as county parkland.
Riverhead Town Supervisor Jerry Halpin expressed disappointment that the acquisition may not happen.
“I’m disappointed that this wasn’t able to happen,” Halpin said. “I totally respect the owner and their decisions, but I hope that myself and our Town Board can always be open to working with the county and landowners” to preserve land.
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President Donald Trump's border czar has threatened to “flood the zone” with immigration agents if New York State passes bills to limit local coordination with the federal government's crackdown.
New York seems ready to do so anyway.
“I don't take well to threats,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said yesterday. "We’re going to pass what we think is important to protect New Yorkers.”
Vaughn Golden and David Propper report in THE NY POST that Border czar Thomas Douglas Homan “schooled” Hochul Wednesday night as the New York governor looks to reduce local cooperation with ICE. Homan claims the Democrat NYS chief executive is only hurting the migrants she’s trying to help.
The Trump administration’s top immigration official hit back at Hochul as the pair got into a war of words this week over the possibility of federal agents surging into the Empire State.
The governor said she was “not asking” for more ICE agents to crack down on illegal migrants Wednesday – only for Homan to respond hours later on Fox News: “Well, Governor Hochul, I’m not asking either.”
Homan’s threat of more manpower comes as Hochul and state lawmakers near a deal — that would be included in the delayed state budget — to dramatically curtail how much local law enforcement and jails can work with ICE. If ICE agents can’t work with jail officials in certain New York counties that have agreements with the federal government, Homan stressed the feds will find other ways to track their targets down.
“She wants to end the partnership we currently have which means now we’ve got to send a whole team to look for a criminal that we could arrest in the safety and security of a jail, which is safer for the officers, safer for the aliens, certainly safer for the communities,” he told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “So you’re forcing us into the neighborhoods to find this person, which means we lost the efficiency of the jails that you want to lock us out of, now we have to send a whole team to find this person so of course we’re going to increase manpower – a lot.”
Albany Democratic legislators also want all law enforcement in the state to stop communicating with ICE unless a person has been criminally charged with a felony or misdemeanor. ICE won’t be able to rent beds in local jails under the NYS Legislature’s proposed series of sanctuary policies, leading detained migrants to be shipped to other parts of the country, Homan said.
The governor again made clear yesterday that she did not want more of an ICE presence in the state. “They’re going to backtrack on that as a threat to me, trying to threaten the governor of the state of New York, and I don’t take well to threats. They’re going to find that out,” Hochul said, noting she has not directly spoken to Trump or Homan since this latest rift. “We’re going to pass what we think is important to protect New Yorkers.”
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It has become an article of faith in the New York State Capitol that when Gov. Kathy Hochul enters the Red Room on the building’s second floor to announce a budget agreement, the deal is actually far from sealed.
This year was no different.
Benjamin Oreskes reports in THE NY TIMES that despite declaring that “today is the day” to announce an agreement on a $268 billion state budget, Ms. Hochul yesterday acknowledged that several key initiatives — including a new tax surcharge on multimillion-dollar second homes in New York City — had been agreed on in principle, but that the details still needed work.
Even the top-line figure had not been finalized.
New York’s opaque budget process, which starts in January with the State of the State address and is supposed to be completed by April 1, has become far more than a negotiation over a fiscal document.
Governors have tended to use the budget to wedge in legislative priorities, wielding their leverage over billions of dollars to get their way.
Ms. Hochul has embraced this practice. And, in a re-election year, she wanted to convey to voters that she intended to stand up to President Trump’s immigration crackdown, help out New York City and lower costs for everyday New Yorkers.
She made that case yesterday at a news conference flanked by several of her top aides. Notably missing were the leaders of the State Assembly and Senate.
The Assembly speaker, Carl E. Heastie, said on Thursday that it was “very premature” of the governor to say a deal had been reached. He would not even say that the Legislature had agreed to the $268 billion figure.
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East End Arts and DXA Studio unveiled a conceptual redesign yesterday for the organization’s East Main Street campus that would raise and relocate its historic buildings to protect them from flooding while creating a more accessible arts and gathering space in downtown Riverhead. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the presentation, delivered at the Riverhead Town Board work session, outlined a first phase focused on elevating the buildings to street level and reorganizing the campus layout while preserving all of the historic structures.
“This first phase is about protecting the historic buildings that have defined East End Arts for decades while creating a campus that is more accessible, connected and central to Riverhead’s new downtown,” East End Arts and Humanities Council Executive Director Wendy Weiss said.
The Town of Riverhead owns the East End Arts property. Through a grant-funded study, the town engaged DXA Studio to work with the East End Arts Council to develop a vision for the site.
The project is tied to the town’s larger flood mitigation and downtown redevelopment efforts surrounding the new town square, hotel and residential development now under construction nearby.
“The reason we are working on this project is because we knew we needed to move the buildings at East End Arts up and out of the floodplain so they do not wash away,” Community Development Administrator Dawn Thomas said during the meeting. “The idea became, where should they go?”
The north end of the site, fronting on Main Street, is to be raised to street level. Currently, it sits several feet below the grade of the street.
“By bringing the buildings closer to street level and reorganizing the site, the plan improves visibility, pedestrian access and connections to the surrounding public realm,” East End Arts and DXA Studio said in a joint press release issued after the work session.
East End Arts last fall moved its administrative offices and instruction space to a town-owned building at 406 Griffing Avenue, adjacent to Riverhead Town Hall.
Weiss told the Town Board yesterday that the arts council would begin construction today on its temporary gallery space at 48 W. Main St. That space, she noted, is across the street from its existing 11 West Gallery, located on the ground floor of Peconic Crossing at 11 W. Main St. The new temporary gallery will open with East End Arts’ Detour VII exhibition on Saturday, June 13.
“We’re working really hard in the meantime so that we’re not just waiting for this to happen,” Weiss said. “We want to keep things going.”
