again, and again, and again<\/a>, every time there\u2019s the threat of a work stoppage. <\/p>\n\u201cThis is a strike against the public interest,\u201d the editorial board said in 1960. <\/p>\n
\u201cHere we are again .\u2002.\u2002. and the consequences are predictably devastating,\u201d the board wrote in 1987. <\/p>\n
NEW FACES, SAME ISSUES<\/p>\n
While the names and the faces in Albany, and at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its unions have changed, many of the broad issues \u2014 primarily salary increases and the efforts to eliminate costly work rules \u2014 are the same. And the potential consequences are the same, too. <\/p>\n
Last week, the unions and the MTA started talking again, with the participation of the National Mediation Board. Unfortunately, an agreement remained elusive. Making matters worse, union officials seem tone deaf to the concerns of riders rather than doing whatever it takes to find a compromise. <\/p>\n
With just six days to go, this is a pivotal moment. More than half of the railroad\u2019s workers have already reached agreements, but these holdouts refuse to agree to the same terms. If those five remaining unions get sweeter deals, all others \u2014 including NYC subway workers who\u2019ve just begun their own negotiations \u2014 are going to want the same, ratcheting up the cost and impact. <\/p>\n
The MTA and the remaining unions have agreed on terms for the first three years of a contract and the MTA has agreed to the notion of a fourth year. That\u2019s where the disagreements begin. Union representatives want a 5% raise in that fourth year, without agreeing to any changes to lucrative but antiquated work rules. The MTA has offered a 3% raise, or more if work rules are on the table. Union officials told the editorial board that last week, the authority offered an alternative scenario: the 3% raise, plus a lump-sum payment. That idea, one union official said Friday, \u201cdoes not get this across the finish line.\u201d <\/p>\n
The notion of a lump-sum payment could move the immediate conversation away from addressing problematic out-of-date practices that must not be ignored. In 1945, the editorial board noted that work rules were a factor when a prior strike was settled. More than 80 years later, work rules \u2014 albeit different ones \u2014 are still at issue, as the unions are hanging on to rules that make no sense in 2026. <\/p>\n
The most egregious example: Locomotive engineers still get an extra day\u2019s pay for flipping a switch on trains that operate on both diesel and electric power. In some circumstances, they then can receive another day\u2019s pay for moving a train to the railyard. That\u2019s three days of pay for one day\u2019s work. <\/p>\n
COSTLY WORK RULES<\/p>\n
Changing such old, unnecessary and costly rules must be on the table now and in the future. If they\u2019re not, union officials shouldn\u2019t expect the pay bumps they seek. An alternative lump-sum payment is more than fair. Taxpayers and riders must come first. <\/p>\n
Nonetheless, even the threat of a strike has in the past led governors, including most recently former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in 2014, to avoid the political costs and cave to union demands to avoid a stoppage. Especially in an election year, Gov. Kathy Hochul clearly will want to avoid one, too. She previously has voiced support for the MTA; she must stay strong. <\/p>\n
The only reason we\u2019re in this predicament \u2014 again \u2014 is because the LIRR unfortunately falls under the federal Railway Labor Act, which allows for strikes when disputes can\u2019t be resolved. New York\u2019s Taylor Law does not allow for such strikes. <\/p>\n
The century-old Railway Labor Act was initially established to cover labor relations for interstate rail and the airline industry. The LIRR has been a part of that federal law dating back to when it was owned by the private Pennsylvania Railroad, before the MTA\u2019s control. The LIRR isn\u2019t alone; other commuter rails like NJ Transit fall under the federal law, too, resulting in a damaging three-day strike just last year. <\/p>\n
In contrast, the Taylor Law, which governs labor relations for most other public employees in New York, including New York City Transit workers, prohibits those workers from going on strike. It provides a variety of superior pathways to resolve labor disputes, including mediation, fact-finding and arbitration. <\/p>\n
For more than a half-century the Newsday editorial board has called for the LIRR to fall under state law, rather than federal jurisdiction. This latest strike threat, which does nothing to help most LIRR workers, since they don\u2019t fall within these five unions, and only harms Long Island residents, should be the alarm our congressional representatives need to hear. <\/p>\n
Only then could Long Islanders stop worrying about the \u201cnext strike.\u201d<\/p>\n
MEMBERS OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD\u00a0are experienced journalists who offer reasoned\u00a0opinions, based on facts, to encourage informed debate about the issues facing our community.<\/p>\n
\n\tMembers of the editorial board\u00a0are experienced journalists who offer reasoned opinions, based on facts, to encourage informed debate about the issues facing our community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018The strike is over. Long live the next strike.\u201d That\u2019s what the Newsday editorial board said in 1994,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[304,9,11,10,49,51,50,17975],"class_list":["post-227052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-editorial","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-newsday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}