For some, working from home is not option. Neither is the commute.

Alyssa Parker, 35, of Douglaston, usually commutes to Penn Station to her job in ad sales, but rushed to Grand Central Thursday after trains were canceled due to the morning fire at Penn.

“Missed my train by 15 seconds,” Parker said. “You don't realize how big Grand Central Terminal is.” She said the 7 train from the West Side was packed.
“Everyone's in a bad mood,” Parker said.

If the LIRR workers strike, “I’m working from home,” she said. “Thankfully my director is a Long Islander."

Parker said she prefers to work in the office with her colleagues after the years that COVID-19 forced people to work remotely.

“It's like PTSD from the pandemic,” Parker said.

Tom Faulding, 55, from Baldwin said a strike would hurt him financially because his IT job doing networking can only be in person.

“I'm an hourly worker, I have no vacation days,” Faulding said. “If I don't go into the city, I don't work … you don't work you don't get paid.”

He said he wouldn't drive into the city if there's a strike because he’d spend half a day driving. He recalled the last LIRR strike when he did drive to and from work. “It took me two and half hours just to get to Baldwin,” Faulding said. “I'm just not going to work.”

Still, he said he doesn't begrudge the LIRR workers.

“They're workers just like you and me,” Faulding said. “People have to make money however they can.”