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NY Gov. Hochul avoids nightmare political scenario with LIRR strike deal
By
Jon Campbell
and
Walter Wuthmann
Published May 19, 2026
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Courtesy of the governor's office
By
Jon Campbell
and
Walter Wuthmann
Published May 19, 2026
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was already facing a difficult electoral landscape on Long Island when a few thousand workers on the nation’s busiest commuter railroad walked off the job.
The island, once a political bellwether, voted for her Republican opponent in 2022 and President Donald Trump in 2024. A lengthy Long Island Rail Road strike upending travel routines for hundreds of thousands of daily commuters — and voters — threatened to make things worse in the middle of an election year.
But Hochul, a Democrat, blunted the potential political damage late Monday when she announced a deal to end the strike and resume service — limiting the strike to one-and-a-half workdays and avoiding a nightmare scenario where service was unavailable for thousands of riders heading to Tuesday night’s New York Knicks playoff game at Madison Square Garden.
“We stood firm for a deal that would not require any additional fare increases or tax increases, period,” Hochul said Monday night, touching on a major theme of her re-election campaign: affordability.
“Full stop. Got it done,” she said.
About 3,500 LIRR workers represented by five unions went on strike Saturday after failing to reach a deal with the MTA.
As the strike began, Hochul’s Republican opponent in her race for re-election, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, pounced on the chance to lay blame at the governor’s feet by aligning himself with trade unions clashing with Hochul. “It’s a complete failure of leadership,” Blakeman said Sunday.
Hochul put herself at the center of talks between the MTA— which is effectively controlled by the governor’s administration — and the unions representing roughly half of LIRR workers. She claimed the union’s demands could’ve led to an 8% fare hike, which she said she was unwilling to accept.
Details of the tentative agreement have not been released. The contract must be ratified by union members and approved by the MTA board.
The governor had to walk a fine line as a Democrat in a largely pro-labor state, said Basil Smikle, a Columbia University professor and former executive director of the state Democratic Party.
“ At the time where affordability is a top-line issue not just for Democrats but for Americans broadly, it's important to show support for unions and living wages and working conditions, even as you're expressing support for and sympathy for commuters who are going to be impacted by this the most,” he said Monday, before a deal was reached.
Hochul has touted her positive relationship with organized labor, including with New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento, whom she credited with playing a key role in ending the LIRR strike.
But Blakeman has highlighted her administration’s squabbles with some key unions, including the group representing corrections officers. The state’s prison system was hobbled by an unauthorized three-week strike in 2025, which led Hochul to fire more than 2,000 officers who failed to return to work.
Among Hochul’s harshest critics is John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union, which represents tens of thousands of MTA employees but not the LIRR workers on strike.
“There's absolutely no doubt that the blame lies with Kathy Hochul,” he said of the LIRR strike on Monday. “This contract has been going on for a long, long time. She knew this was going to come. … So there's no business, there's no reality in anybody's world that this is Trump's fault.”
But Samuelsen said Blakeman didn’t do enough to exploit that.
“ Hochul has freaking completely gone to war with the residents of Long Island,” Samuelsen said. “And I believe that there's so much more that Blakeman could be doing to uncover that and to convey that to New York voters.”
The governor struggled on Long Island when she last won election in 2022. That year, she was facing Rep. Lee Zeldin, who, like Blakeman, is a Long Island Republican.
Zeldin defeated Hochul 55% to 45% in Nassau County and 58% to 41% in Suffolk County, which helped propel four Republican congressional candidates to victory that year.
On Monday, Jay Jacobs, the Hochul-appointed chair of the state Democratic Party, said he thought Hochul would “come out looking very good” when the dust settled with the rail strike. Aside from highlighting Trump’s role in the dispute, the strike allowed Hochul to push her message of affordability, he said.
“ The governor is standing up for the ratepayers, and I think that is going to be appreciated by those who take the railroad,” Jacobs said.
On Tuesday, Blakeman said Hochul remains at fault for more than a hundred million dollars in economic damage caused by the three-day strike.
“Hochul owes a massive refund to the small businesses who lost their foot traffic, the hourly workers who lost their shifts and the families who got completely screwed by her incompetence,” Blakeman said in a statement.
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said Monday the strike could cost the region $61 million in daily economic activity.
The governor, meanwhile, toed the line Monday night, praising the LIRR workers while touting a deal that she says avoided some of their demands that would have required fare hikes.
“ I want them to know this: I deeply value and respect the hard work they do, who are out there every single day making sure the job gets done,” Hochul said Monday night. “Their work is critical for the entire region, and they deserve a fair wage.”
Tagged
Kathy Hochul
LIRR strike
MTA
Politics
long island
new york city
new york state
Jon Campbell
Jon Campbell covers the New York State Capitol for WNYC and Gothamist. Prior to that, he covered the Capitol for more than a decade for the USA TODAY Network. He has twice earned the Walter T. Brown Memorial Award, an honor given annually by the Legislative Correspondents Association alumni for outstanding state government coverage. Jon grew up in the Buffalo area and graduated from the University at Albany. Got a tip? Email Jon at [email protected] or Signal at JonCampbellNY.90.
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Walter Wuthmann
Walter Wuthmann is a reporter covering public safety and the legal system.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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