This is now the second board that will conduct mediations between New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Long Island Rail Road workers, which is made up of a coalition of five unions that requested again for Trump to intervene.
About 300,000 passengers could be impacted daily if an agreement is not reached.
This has been a three-year contract dispute, which went into mediation more than a year ago. The president signed an initial executive order that named a board in September 2025 to deal with the labor disagreement.
“That emergency board terminated upon submission of its report to the President. Subsequently, its recommendations were not accepted by all of the parties,” Trump’s latest executive order reads.
The first board recommended to Trump a 14 percent raise over four years for workers. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority declined that, suggesting instead a 9.5 percent raise over four years.
“If these unions wanted to put riders first, they would either settle or agree to binding arbitration,” New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority previously said. “This cynical delay serves no one.”
The five labor unions involved in the ongoing disputes include the Transportation Communications Union, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
“During this entire process, the employer has chosen delay, obstruction, and political maneuvering over meaningful negotiation and resolution,” said Gilman Lang, the general chairman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen.
The second emergency board is now tasked with investigating and reporting to Trump.
Parties on both sides of the labor dispute have another 120 days to come to an agreement before a strike or lockout becomes possible. The second board will be officially created at midnight on Jan. 16. The parties on both sides will have 30 days after its creation to submit their final offers for a settlement.
The new board, whose members have not been announced yet, will be terminated upon reporting to the president which offer it believes to be the best to settle the dispute.
Trump will appoint a chair and two other members to lead the new mediations.
“No member shall be pecuniarily or otherwise interested in any organization of railroad employees or any carrier,” the executive order reads.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul previously said she stands with the hundreds of thousands of commuters who use the railroad each day.
“We are only asking for what’s fair and consistent with agreements reached across the rail industry,” Transportation Communications Union National Vice President Nick Peluso said in its most recent statement this week.
The coalition of the unions accused the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of choosing provocation over progress.
The Epoch Times requested comment from each of the five unions about the new board, but they did not immediately respond.
