The leaders of five unions representing more than half of the Long Island Rail Road workforce on Wednesday warned they were prepared to go on strike next month — and claimed that MTA officials have stonewalled contract negotiations.
Kevin Sexton, national vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said during a press conference the workers would walk off the job on May 16 if they don’t reach a new collective bargaining agreement with the transit agency.
Sexton said a strike would halt service on the country’s busiest commuter railroad, which “would be a disaster for Long Island.”
“No one wants a strike,” said Sexton. “Our friends, our families, our neighbors, our communities rely on this system.”
The LIRR union members haven’t had a raise since their last contract expired nearly four years ago, and have been at loggerheads with the MTA for months over pay increases.
The transit agency’s leaders have asked for changes to work rules, like one that gives engineers double pay when they operate both a diesel and electric locomotive in the same shift. The MTA is also hung up on contract restrictions that limit overnight track and signal maintenance. Transit officials said they also want unionized clerks who work at LIRR stations to agree to do other tasks than sell tickets.
The two sides have twice sought federal help resolving the current contract dispute after the unions previously threatened to walk off the job. After several cooling off periods, the workers are legally allowed to strike if there’s no deal by the May 16 deadline.
A Presidential Emergency Board brought in to help resolve the contract sided with the unions on March 16, and found that a pay increase of 14.5% over four years and a $3,000 lump sum payout for the workers was reasonable. The emergency board also said the two sides should agree on a new rule to require electronic payroll systems for workers and move away from paper timekeeping systems that have been tied to overtime abuse in recent years.
The union leaders on Wednesday said the MTA has only agreed to return to the negotiating table once since the emergency board sided with the unions.
MTA officials said they agreed to the pay raises offered by the union during the first three years of the proposed contract — but disputed a 5% pay bump that would land during its fourth year.
“We are all in agreement about pay increases for the current contract period. The dispute pertains only to one future year, and there’s no good reason why it can’t be resolved at the bargaining table,” wrote John McCarthy, the MTA’s chief of policy and external relations, in a statement. “Nobody wins in a strike — not the unions, not the LIRR, and not the Long Islanders who depend on our great service.”
The presidential board report noted that the MTA was reluctant to accept a 5% increase in the last year of the contract because it would “send the message to all the other MTA bargaining units that it is better to hold out and seek governmental intervention” than resolve contract disputes voluntarily. It could also set a benchmark going forward.
The last major LIRR strike was in 1987, and lasted 11 days until President Ronald Reagan intervened to end the labor action. LIRR workers are allowed to go on strike because their jobs do not fall under the jurisdiction of New York state’s Taylor Law, which prohibits New York City subway workers from labor strikes.
NJ Transit service shut down for three days last year when the workers represented by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen also went on strike. The union leaders on Wednesday said they were prepared for a LIRR strike that drags on even longer.
“ We have very little time left to get this resolved and the clock is ticking,” said Michael Sullivan, general chair of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen.
