Members of largest union of Long Island Rail Road workers vote 500-0 in favor of future strike

Members of largest union of Long Island Rail Road workers vote 500-0 in favor of future strike
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/largest-lirr-union-hold-strike-vote-...
With Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials and LIRR union leaders at an impasse in contract talks, the strike vote Wednesday represented a key point leading toward a possible walk-out as early as March 21

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BY PETE DONOHUE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

PUBLISHED: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014, 3:26 PM

TINA FINEBERG/ASSOCIATED PRESS

In a key moment in the development of a possible March walk-out of Long Island Rail Road workers, members of the largest union of railroad workers voted 500-0 Wednesday night to strike.

Members of the Long Island Rail Road’s largest union voted Wednesday to strike by a margin of 500 to 0, a development that helps lay the groundwork for a walk-out as early as next month.

Two locals that make up the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Union held a vote Wednesday night in Massapequa, L.I., union officials said. One other local in SMART did not take part in the vote.

They were prepared to appoint strike captains and hand out strike-related signs following the vote, but legally a strike can’t take place before March 21. And MTA officials have not exhausted opportunities for mediation.

SMART represents approximately 2,700 LIRR workers, including conductors, train mechanics and cleaners.

LIRR workers, about 6,000 in number, have been laboring without a contract for more than three years, and talks aimed at producing a new contract have reached an impasse. Workers are angry that officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — the railroad’s parent company — won’t adopt a contract settlement proposed by a Presidential Emergency Board. The proposal featured modest raises, but MTA bosses shot it down last month.

MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg shrugged off the strike vote before it was held as “a routine procedural step in the absence of a new agreement.”

“The MTA remains hopeful we can reach a negotiated settlement,” he added.

LIRR workers most recently went on strike for 11 days in 1987 and two days in 1994.

The Presidential Emergency Board, which was comprised of neutral mediators, handed down its recommendations in December after hearing labor and management experts testify about MTA finances, the cost of living in the New York area, the comparable pay of workers at other railroads and additional factors.

The board concluded the MTA could afford to pay the raises it proposed — amounting to about 2.85% a year for six years — without raising fares in 2015 higher than the 4% jump already planned. It also said workers should start contributing 2% of their base pay for health care.

But the MTA is pushing for a three-year wage freeze from all of its workers unless pay increases are offset by cost savings related to productivity. The Presidential Emergency Board didn’t endorse the work-rule changes the MTA sought to balance out potential rises for LIRR workers.

LIRR workers also are furious that the MTA is trying to pit workers against riders by claiming big fare hikes are in store if the unions get what they want, said Anthony Simon, general chairman of SMART.

Under federal law, the LIRR unions can legally go on strike as early as March 21 unless the MTA requests new hearings before a second board of mediators. If the impasse were to continue after a second board issued a proposal, the unions could then legally strike this summer.

The MTA has built its financial plans on the premise that all of its nearly 60 unions would agree to new contracts that did not increase payroll costs. Raises that are not paid for through work-rule changes or reduced benefits would blow a huge hole in the authority’s finances, officials have said.

The MTA’s finances have improved significantly in recent years, however. The state controller reported last year that the MTA would receive $1.9 billion more in tax revenues than the authority had initially predicted. Still, officials say the authority's financial situation is fragile.

Back in 1994, the LIRR was shut down for two days after engineers, conductors and track workers, who had been without a contract for two-and-a-half years, walked off the job in a dispute over raises and work rules. They returned to work after a settlement that granted 8.7% raises over three years was reached with the MTA. Gov. Cuomo's father, Mario, was governor at the time.

“We paid the ransom,” former MTA Chairman Peter Stangl said at the time.

pdonohue@nydailynews.com