LIRR contract mediation session ends; recommendations expected next week

A weeklong emergency mediation session ordered by President Donald Trump to help resolve a labor dispute between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and five LIRR unions ended Friday with labor leaders expressing confidence and the MTA’s chairman expressing "trepidation."

Now both sides wait on federal mediators’ non-binding recommendations on clearing up the contract fight, a battle that could result in a Long Island Rail Road union strike as early as January.

Days away from a potential strike, the unions last month asked Trump to appoint a Presidential Emergency Board of mediators to buy more time for negotiations, which came to a standstill over the summer.

The three-member mediation board convened Sunday in Washington, D.C. for a six-day session during which both sides made their case.

The MTA wants the five labor organizations, which represent roughly half of all LIRR union workers, to accept a three-year contract with 9.5% in raises that has already been approved by most MTA unions. The unions, which represent LIRR locomotive engineers, electricians, signal workers, ticket clerks and other workers, are pushing for a fourth year at 6.5%, for a total wage increase of 16%.

At a Manhattan news conference Friday, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber, who attended the emergency mediation session, said he doesn’t "know what the board is going to do," but acknowledged feeling some "trepidation" over what he suggested was a potential conflict of interest for one of the mediators.

"One member that Trump appointed to the board is actually a member, an official of the union that is leading this labor dispute, which seems crazy to me," Lieber said.

MTA officials later said Lieber was referring to Tom Pontolillo, a professional arbitrator who previously served as director of research for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), which is the same union representing LIRR train operators in the ongoing dispute.

Reached for comment, National Mediation Board officials said their agency was closed due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.

The unions did not address Lieber's assertion. Kevin Sexton, spokesman for the LIRR bargaining coalition and national vice president for the BLET, in a statement said, "The coalition’s request is exceedingly reasonable and we are confident we demonstrated such to the Presidential Emergency Board this week."

The unions have said that, accounting for high inflation and living costs in New York, the 9.5% raises offered by the MTA would amount to a wage cut for workers, and also would be well below what other railroads throughout the United States have offered their workers in recent contracts.

Asked about the Washington, D.C. mediation session on Wednesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul declined to comment on "ongoing negotiations," but said, "We want to get it settled."

Lieber has suggested the MTA would be willing to give the unions higher raises in exchange for concessions on union work rules, including those that give employees substantially more money for minimal extra work, including a second day’s pay for engineers who operate an electric train and a diesel train in the same shift.

Trump’s mediation board is expected to release its recommendations for a settlement in the contract dispute next week. Absent a resolution, federal law allows for a legal work stoppage in January. But the White House could appoint a second mediation board, which would push any strike deadline to May.

"We have to let them do their work and produce their report," Lieber said of the mediators. "The point I made to the board and which I’m hearing from riders and the public in general is that these insane work rules have to be addressed."

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.