Yet another reason for privatizing mass transportation emerged Saturday morning, after a left-wing rail union launched a strike set to snarl the nation’s busiest commuter railroad network.
The labor action threatens to paralyze the Long Island Rail Road, a critical transportation artery spanning the New York City-to-Long Island corridor and linking Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens with Nassau and Suffolk counties.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen (BLET), which endorsed former left-wing and failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris, said its 3,500 members who work for the LIRR went on strike early Saturday morning.
“No agreement on wage increases was reached between a coalition of five unions, including BLET, and the LIRR. In accordance with the terms of the Railway Labor Act, the coalition’s 3,500 members went on strike just after midnight,” BLET wrote on X.
BLET’s National Vice President Kevin Sexton was quoted by AP News as saying that negotiations between the union and the LIRR have collapsed.
“We’re far apart at this point,” Sexton said. “We are truly sorry that we are in this situation.”
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said LIRR “gave the union everything they said they wanted in terms of pay,” and that to him it was apparent the unions always intended to walk out.
In fact, we detailed in August 2025 a comprehensive “Color Revolution: A Strategic Assessment (2025-2028),“ outlining how left-wing unions and NGOs were planning “coordinated, targeted, and nonviolent strategic action such as national strikes and boycotts, large-scale disruption to economic activity and civil society, and other forms of mass political defiance designed to damage a government’s legitimacy, authority, and capacity.”
The rail strike threatens major disruption for roughly 270,000 daily riders and could cost the region an estimated $61 million in lost economic activity per day.
The labor action will likely backfire because LIRR riders are mostly middle-class, and the shutdown of the transportation network will hurt working households the most.
Limited shuttle bus service is planned beginning Monday, but capacity will cover only a fraction of normal ridership.
This is the first strike on the LIRR since 1994, and the timing could not be worse, as commuting across the service area will be a nightmare come Monday morning. This is also unfolding in a state controlled by unhinged Democrats, alongside a socialist mayor in NYC.
6 Responses
I grew up in Pittsburgh and saw how worthless unions are.. Steelworkers demanded more pay, better hours etc and what did they get?
a trip to the unemployment office!
the big Union bosses filled their pockets then walked away leaving the Steelworkers, Machinists, Railroad workers with nothing.
That’s the reality of the situation
Going a bit farther, with the AI future coming on strong, what do you think is going to happen with AI, robots , drones, digital currencies, AI control grids, etc,
Right now most every republic in the world is up to its eyeballs in debt. Be lucky to pay basic pension benefits. You actually think they are going to pay a basic income check to everyone not working? If so it will be with a worthless currency from bankrupted republics.
Nope, far more likely it will be harsh capitalism or harsh socialism. Where as people get paid very little of anything, maybe something the flavor of hunger games, or a slave work force like in China, etc.
To escape this hell likely means more political power for the people by the best democracy/government designs possible. This is the only chance for a positive future. Unions also enable people with more political power and is in the mix of a first world country.
You need to get off the internet. You’re living in your own mental prison.
Ever look up the history of the gilded age? Think unions popped up from nowhere, for no reason? Think communists like unions?
Understand with every breath comes a lie, often lying by ommission of important truth.
The truth is communists, fascists, and harsh capitalism hate unions. I ask anyone to list how many communist countries have unions? Then I ask how many first world countries have no union movements in their history? If answer these honestly, it will crack open some lies of omission on this issue.
Are unions perfect, not at all, but without them at some level you usually end up with a third world worker/consumer that can only pay third world level taxes. From that situation you have a third world crap hole republic. Right? Be honest if you can.
So must have unions to have enough political strength for people so to have a first world level worker/consumer. At least at some level, so basic support for unions is the most populist issue a leader can take. So the communists, fascists and harsh capitalists, etc, will never support unions at any level.
That’s a lot of mental gymnastics there. Too bad you’re wrong. Maybe you’re not white so it’s harder for you to understand economics, I don’t know.