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Unions’ hidden LIRR-strike scheme aims to pick everyone’s pockets

Nypost · · 807 words · By Ken Girardin; John Ketcham
Fiscal responsibility Government Regulation of Labor Labor Union Greed
open_in_new Read the original article: https://nypost.com/2026/05/18/opinion/unions-hidden-lirr-strike-scheme-will-pick…

psychologyDetected Techniques

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Loaded Language 100% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.
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Name Calling / Labeling 90% confidence
Attaching a negative label to a person or group to reject them without evidence.
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Appeal to Fear 80% confidence
Building support by instilling anxiety or panic in the audience.
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Oversimplification 70% confidence
Reducing a complex issue to a simplistic framing that distorts understanding.
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Ad Hominem 80% confidence
Attacking the person making the argument rather than the argument itself.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

19 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

schedule Pending 9
check_circle Corroborated 5
help Insufficient Evidence 2
verified Verified By Reference 1
info Single Source 1
verified Verified 1
verified
“The Long Island Rail Road strike that began early Saturday continues upending commutes from Manhattan to Suffolk County.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia explicitly confirms the 2026 Long Island Rail Road strike began at 12:01 am on Saturday and involves workers across the system from Manhattan to Suffolk County.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Long Island Rail Road (reporting mark LI), or LIRR, is a railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Isl…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_Rail_Road
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 2026 Long Island Rail Road strike is an ongoing strike by around 3,500 Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) workers, around half the system's workers, across five unions in the New York City metropolitan …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Long_Island_Rail_Road_str…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Cannonball is a seasonal named train operated by the Long Island Rail Road between Penn Station in New York City and Montauk on the east end of Long Island, New York. The train operates weekly bet…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_(LIRR_train)
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“Negotiations over the LIRR’s union contracts, which came up for renewal in 2023, have been dragging on for three years.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results confirm that LIRR workers went on strike after failing to reach a deal on a contract that began negotiations in 2023.
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web search NEUTRAL — Long Island Rail Road workers are covered by a 1926 federal law that requires mediation and an extended review period before a strike is authorized. But the federal agency that oversees such disputes,…
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/nyregion/lirr-strike-mta-…
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web search NEUTRAL — Long Island Rail Road workers went on strike as of 12:01 a.m. Saturday after not reaching a new contract deal with the MTA.The negotiations on this contract began back in 2023. The big issues are sala…
https://abc7ny.com/live-updates/lirr-strike-2026-update-mta/…
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web search NEUTRAL — Unions representing rail workers and the Metropolitan Transportation Agency, which runs the railroad, negotiated through much of Sunday and early Monday.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/05/18/nation/long-island-ra…
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“LIRR still must print paper paychecks in the year 2026”
SINGLE SOURCE
While there is evidence of a 2026 timeframe for the strike, no provided evidence mentions the specific detail about printing paper paychecks in 2026.
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web search NEUTRAL — © 2026 Google LLC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIrGrOU7UPM
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web search NEUTRAL — The Long Island Rail Road carried 82 million customers last year. Most were weekday commuters on their way to jobs in New York City, but an increasing number of passengers are using the service on wee…
https://dnyuz.com/2026/05/16/long-island-rail-road-workers-g…
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web search NEUTRAL — The Fine Print.Workers on the commuter rail system connecting Manhattan to New Jersey, New Jersey Transit, went on strike last year. It lasted three days. ___ The first reference to the rail system ha…
https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/2026/05/16/na…
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“more than 300 agency workers got six-figure overtime payments last year, on top of their base pay.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources (Newsday and other reports) confirm that hundreds of LIRR workers (specifically citing numbers like 'nearly 300' and 'more than 325') received over $100,000 in overtime last year.
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web search NEUTRAL — Nearly 300 Long Island Rail Road employees made more than $100,000 in overtime last year — more workers than at any other MTA agency — according to the report. With the MTA recently receiving an extra…
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/transportation/mta-lirr-…
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web search NEUTRAL — More than 325 Long Island Rail Road workers are raking in over $100,000 a year in overtime on top of their lucrative salaries, with 11 of them netting at least twice that huge figure in OT.
https://nypost.com/2026/05/18/us-news/hundreds-of-picketing-…
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web search NEUTRAL — The report, released by the Empire Center, highlights that 629 MTA employees made more than $100,000 just in overtime last year. Of those, 259 work on the Long Island Rail Road.
https://longisland.news12.com/report-nearly-100-metro-north-…
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“New York’s Taylor Law, which governs most public-sector employees, forbids them from legally calling a strike.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results and World Socialist Web Site confirm that the New York Taylor Law prohibits public-sector strikes.
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web search NEUTRAL — Striker replacement (hiring workers to replace striking workers during the course of a strike) is not banned or restricted by international law.Public-sector union.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strikebreaker
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web search NEUTRAL — New York State’s 154 billionaires have more than $1 trillion in wealth. Wall Street bonuses alone reached a record $49.2 billion last year.The ruling class responded by passing the infamous Taylor Law…
https://www.worldsocialistwebsite.org/en/articles/2026/05/13…
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web search NEUTRAL — New York Labor Law Section 194-B applies to private employers with 4 or more employees for jobs performed at least partly in New York or remote jobs reporting to a NYC supervisor or office. Job postin…
https://www.allvoices.co/blog/new-york-city-labor-laws
verified
“its employees are covered by the federal Railway Labor Act”
VERIFIED
Newsday explicitly states that LIRR employees are covered by the federal Railway Labor Act, excluding them from certain state bills.
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web search NEUTRAL — The Long Island Rail Road, America’s busiest passenger rail service, remained suspended on Monday because of its first labor strike in more than 30 years.The rail service has an annual operating budge…
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/nyregion/lirr-strike-long…
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web search NEUTRAL — Not if you are a Long Island Rail Road worker. The bill specifically excludes certain categories of employees, including those who are covered by the federal Railway Labor Act, such as LIRR and Metro-…
https://www.newsday.com/opinion/the-point/lirr-overtime-taxe…
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web search NEUTRAL — The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) rider demographic consists primarily of white-collar professionals working in sectors like Financial Services and Professional/Business Services as seen in the 2025 re…
https://5townscentral.com/2026/05/05/lirr-strike-threat-rais…
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“some taxpayer-funded transit operations still face work stoppages, as New Jersey Transit did a year ago.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results confirm that New Jersey Transit experienced a work stoppage/strike, and one source specifically mentions it lasted three days 'last year'.
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web search NEUTRAL — New Jersey Transit, the third-largest transit system in the United States, provides more than 700,000 passenger trips a day on average across its train, light rail, and bus lines.The fight over the ex…
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/nation/2025/05/18/new…
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web search NEUTRAL — PRINCETON, New Jersey (Reuters) -New Jersey's commuter rail engineers walked off the job early on Friday after 11th-hour contract talks with the third-largest U.S. public transit system stalled ahead …
https://www.yahoo.com/news/jersey-transit-rail-strike-loomin…
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web search NEUTRAL — What is NJ Transit doing to improve rider experience? When Governor Sherrill came into office, her focus was on trying to get NJ Transit to be modern and reliable.How is NJ Transit preparing to get fa…
https://njmonthly.com/articles/jersey-living/nj-transit-ceo-…
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“the LIRR and the unions had agreed to three years’ worth of raises.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results confirm that the MTA and unions agreed on raises for the first three years of a four-year contract but stalled on the final year.
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web search NEUTRAL — The Long Island Rail Road shut down at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, the first strike in over 30 years. Up to 300,000 commuters are affected. Here's the math.The MTA and unions agreed on raises for the first t…
https://www.briefs.co/news/the-lirr-just-went-on-strike-it-c…
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web search NEUTRAL — Members of the five unions that are on strike made more than $136,000 last year on average, according to M.T.A. figures. But they have not received a raise since 2022.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/nyregion/lirr-strike-mta-…
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web search NEUTRAL — The Long Island Rail Road ground to a halt early Saturday morning after five unions representing roughly half the workforce walked off the job.She should use the strike to tackle long-standing problem…
https://www.city-journal.org/article/long-island-rail-road-l…
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“the unions wanted a bigger raise in the fourth year than the 3% offered by the LIRR.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was provided in the search results regarding the specific percentage (3%) offered for the fourth year or the unions' specific counter-demand.
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“That’s on top of the agreed-upon 9.8% raises (with back pay) and $3,000 lump-sum payments.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was provided in the search results regarding the specific 9.8% raise figure or the $3,000 lump-sum payments.
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“The New York City Transit Authority, the MTA’s biggest agency, is negotiating with TWU Local 100, which reps about 40,000 subway and bus workers.”
PENDING
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“Local 100’s contract expired this month”
PENDING
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“When Local 100 struck illegally back in 2005, it suffered financial penalties so fierce that the union had to sell its headquarters.”
PENDING
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“John Samuelsen, the head of TWU’s parent union”
PENDING
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“Hochul avoided a June primary”
PENDING
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“GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman, who supports the strike”
PENDING
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“Mayor Zohran Mamdani has taken a back seat in the LIRR dispute, declining to support either side”
PENDING
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“MTA boss Janno Lieber has likewise warned that the TWU is attempting “to force the MTA and the state to do a bad deal.””
PENDING
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“Ken Girardin and John Ketcham are fellows at the Manhattan Institute.”
PENDING
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.