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Long Island can’t function without the railroad. If all the riders on its 700 miles of train tracks got in automobiles, New York would need to build a new 26-lane highway from Montauk to Manhattan (according to an estimate from 1965), at least a couple more Queens-Midtown tunnels, and some of the world’s largest parking garages. That is the leverage Long Island Rail Road workers had when they went on a three-day strike from Saturday until Monday. On a good day, getting to the city from Nassau or Suffolk counties means either taking the train or slogging through some of the worst gridlock ever created by humankind. Every weekday, nearly 300,000 riders choose the train. It’s why working for any of New York City’s railroads, subways, bridges or tunnels comes with premium pay. And as five unions shut down the LIRR by going on strike, MTA Chair Janno Lieber was quick to point that out. “This group of unions are actually the highest paid railroad workers in the country, and it doesn’t make any sense that they’re asking for a better deal than the rest of the folks working at the MTA,” Lieber said during a FOX5 appearance Monday morning. “They’re asking for a special deal.”

In fairness to Lieber, the LIRR’s rank-and-file workforce has not done itself any favors in recent years. Workers on the railroad have been indicted for astronomical overtime fraud, been caught cloning time cards to swipe each other into work — and even vandalized a high-tech “biometric” time clock installed at a train yard to ensure crews were actually showing up. Labor negotiations are often contentious. Lieber is obligated to protect the MTA’s finances. But his remarks were an instance of the pot calling the kettle black. The reality is nearly everyone involved in the gargantuan task of moving people into, out of and across New York City is well compensated, including Lieber. The LIRR’s workers are indeed the best paid railroad workers in the country. Lieber is also one of the best paid transit executives in the country, earning $420,599 in 2024. (MTA officials note transit execs in cities with smaller systems like Boston, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and even Jacksonville, Florida are paid more). Lieber earns far more than his boss, Gov. Kathy Hochul. Many senior MTA officials, including the chief of policy and communications director, earn more than their counterparts in the governor’s office. MTA spokesperson Mitch Schwartz said the high executive pay “hasn't stopped this MTA leadership team from delivering record on-time performance and customer satisfaction rates.” The unions, of course, could say the same thing about LIRR workers. Union trade laborers and engineering consultants are also well compensated due to the high costs associated with construction projects across the MTA’s system. The Q line’s 1.5-mile extension into East Harlem costs $7.7 billion, making it one of the world’s most expensive subway extensions on a per-mile basis. MTA officials often pin the agency’s high construction price tags on the United States’ high healthcare costs, fire codes, environmental review and other uniquely American facts of life. Lieber, who oversees North America’s largest transportation network, can point to construction savings in the billions. He’s succeeded in reforming the agency that was once notorious for inefficiency, blown deadlines and cost overruns. Still, most of the MTA’s engineering work is contracted to third-party firms, which comes with a premium. The recent strike highlights how the cost of rank-and-file labor tends to get a lot more scrutiny than other categories. “I think we very rarely have much insight into inefficiencies from the managerial point of view,” said Joshua Freeman, a labor historian and professor at CUNY. “We tend to look at it from a point of view of, ‘Is labor getting too good a deal?’” “The MTA consulting contracts on the construction side don’t get nearly as much attention,” he said. In other words, everyone involved in the business of the MTA is getting paid well. So why shouldn’t LIRR workers get their piece of the pie?

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