LIRR strikers should take deal

This Long Island Rail Road strike, precipitated by less than half of the railway’s union membership, continues on an irresponsible path with a callous disregard for the well-being of riders and the region’s businesses which pay for their comfortable wages and generous pension benefits. The workers for the nation’s busiest commuter rail have a good deal on the table and they should take it.

Disappointingly, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and unions started these negotiations way too late. This four-year contract will have three years of wages paid retroactively. Then management mistakenly backed off on its demands to eliminate costly work rules that increase copious, if not dubious, overtime and bonus pay.

The LIRR’s other unions have already settled for a 9.5% increase in salary for the past three years, but they are honoring the picket line set up by those wanting a fourth year paying 5%. If the pot is sweetened for them, then the other unions will want the same benefit.

But knowing it was possible to negotiate a deal that more than half the union membership approved indicates that a strike could have been avoided. Labor peace it seems is being held hostage by a union leadership that doesn’t have the expertise or creativity to close a deal for their members. This gamesmanship is disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of riders, choking the area’s roads and harming local businesses.

According to the MTA, meeting the dissenting unions’ demands of a 5% raise for 2027 also could mean a matching boost for the entire organized workforce, adding $270 million in annual costs. The MTA calculates that could mean an 8% fare hike, translating into ticket increases of up to $468 annually for those who buy monthly tickets, making Long Island more unaffordable. The MTA sensibly demands that if the strikers get a boost beyond the 3%, they should find the money givebacks.

Those demanding that Gov. Kathy Hochul kick in more taxpayer dollars to cover their wage increases are drunk on their rhetoric. The LIRR already is the most heavily subsidized unit in the MTA.

One premise of organized labor is to help those without any bargaining power get a fair deal from management. But that is hardly the case for LIRR unions who block changes in any rules that would make operations more efficient and less costly.

Once this contract dispute is settled, it’s only a year until negotiations begin anew.

But that’s enough time for Congress to remove the LIRR from the jurisdiction of the federal Railway Labor Act. It was a bad mistake by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller who created the state authority which acquired the Long Island Rail Road. The LIRR then had a freight system but even after that operation was sold, the federal rules remained. LIRR workers must come under New York’s Taylor Law which prohibits strikes by public workers. That’s the law governing the New York City subway system; the LIRR should be not treated any differently.