You couldn’t help but notice the contrast last Monday as you stood outside Penn Station and watched a row of LIRR employees march in a slow circle while holding their signs. The men on the picket line had a worn-out, working-class appearance; they were the type of men who worked long hours in switch yards and track ballast. However, the figures that appeared in the morning newspapers presented a somewhat different picture. It turned out that some of these employees were earning more than the governor of New York.
That was the peculiar tension that pervaded the entire strike. Including overtime, the average LIRR employee made about $136,000 last year. In practically every part of the nation, that is already a comfortable salary. However, when the layers are removed, the figures become more bizarre. In overtime alone, over 325 workers earned over $100,000. That was doubled by eleven of them. Leonardo Espinosa, a gang foreman who has worked there since 2005, reportedly made $244,954 in overtime in addition to his base pay of $129,493, bringing his total compensation to almost $397,000. That seems almost surreal, especially when you consider that he is in charge of a track gang.
It’s not just Espinosa. Another gang foreman, Steve Delacrausaz, earned $233,195 in overtime. Jeffrey Davies cleared $364,000 and resides in a 6,000-square-foot home in Freeport. Bay Shore resident Brian Turner earned about $378,000. They’re not executives. They don’t work in glass offices as dispatch managers. They work shifts on platforms and tracks as foremen, accruing hours that would wear most people out. However, the system appears to rely on it rather than just permit it.
Speaking with anyone who has watched the MTA over the years gives me the impression that the overtime culture isn’t a coincidence. It is structural. The railroad has long struggled with aging infrastructure, a maintenance backlog that never quite goes down, and staffing shortages. The gap is filled by overtime. The MTA has been hesitant to publicly address the question of whether it should. The last time LIRR employees went on strike, in 1994, was a completely different time. Both sides find today’s strike to be more complicated and uncomfortable.
During a press conference on Sunday, Governor Kathy Hochul sounded like someone attempting to put out a fire. “The railroad is the lifeblood of Long Island,” she nearly begged. It was the kind of thing governors say when their options are exhausted. The Transportation Communications Union’s national president, Matt Hollis, announced early on Monday that the strike would continue into a third day. He held the MTA leadership accountable. The unions were held accountable by the MTA. As was to be expected, commuters blamed everyone.
The fact that the employees aren’t wholly incorrect also complicates public opinion. Given inflation in the New York metro area, their request for a retroactive 9.5% pay increase covering the previous three years isn’t particularly outrageous. The cost of rent has increased. The cost of groceries has increased. Delacrausaz lives in West Babylon, where even modest homes have seen significant appreciation. From the outside, the salary figures appear enormous, but living on Long Island tends to deplete them more quickly than people anticipate.
It’s difficult to ignore the optics, though. There were almost 300,000 commuters stuck. Owners of small businesses saw the disappearance of morning foot traffic. Sitting on a $672,000 duplex in Lynbrook, a gang foreman was allegedly in possession of an unrelated 2024 IRS tax lien. These are the minor, uncomfortable details that persist.
The bigger question remains unanswered whether the final agreement feels just or hurried. For years, the LIRR’s pay structure has been gradually, almost imperceptibly, developing in this manner. The lights were simply turned on by the strike.