Looming strike coming ahead of next week's commencement at Stony Brook University
Alex Petty, a staffer at Stony Brook University’s arts center, commutes to campus on the LIRR every day from Queens.
He said if the service is shut down next week he’s not sure what he’ll do to make it back for graduation next week.
“Next week is commencement, so it’s a really big thing for a lot of the students, but also I have to be here to make sure commencement can happen with my co-workers,” he said at the Stony Brook LIRR station on Friday afternoon. “I have no idea what I am going to do.”
Neither Petty nor his co-workers who live in the city have cars, “so there’s not a great car pooling option,” he said. The Stony Brook staffer said his backup plan is to spend about $150 on a rental car and contend with traffic on the Long Island Expressway.
He said the extra hassle is a small price to pay for union workers to get a good deal, however.
“I’m all for a strong union. If this is what they need to do to protect their livelihood then so be it,” he said. “For me, it’s not going to be the end of my world. I will make it work.”
Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.
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