MTA: Union trying to force 'bad deal' for taxpayers
MTA Chair Janno Lieber speaks outside the agency's headquarters early Saturday morning. Credit: Newsday/Bahar Ostadan
In their first public statements about the LIRR strike, MTA leaders said the union is using commuters to try to compel the agency into a "bad deal."
“We can’t expect taxpayers to foot the bill,” MTA Chair Janno Lieber said just before 12:30 a.m., standing outside the agency’s Manhattan headquarters. “Their strategy is to inconvenience Long Islanders and try to force the MTA and the state to do a bad deal.”
Union leaders had just told reporters that the two sides were "far apart." This is the first LIRR strike since 1994.
Picket lines have already begun at Penn Station and Ronkonkoma, union leaders said. Others will form beginning at 7am Saturday.
The next round of talks are not yet scheduled, said Kevin Sexton, spokesman for the union bargaining committee.
With Janon Fisher
'Democrats say this is a misuse of taxpayer funds' Nassau Republicans awarded over $1 million in taxpayer-funded legal contracts to the one-man law firm of Sheharyar Ali, a longtime GOP ally. Ali's father is an adviser to Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. NewsdayTV's Ken Buffa and Newsday Nassau County politics reporter Bahar Ostadan have the story.
