LIRR Union Negotiations/Newsday Editorial

The purpose of a strike is to cause havoc to get attention, If strike had no impact it would be useless.
Mr.Cuomo does not want a strike near or at election time, merchants don't want strike in months preceding Christmas, Commuters won't like a strike in winter months, etc, etc.

as for railway labor act, any administration will force you back to work if you strike before its allowed.

There were times over my career that we were on strike legally, and Ted Kennedy and the boys forced us back to work.

Doc under railway labor act any party can and will order you back to work, you really believe any party will let you shut down a city or region like New York ???

wanna buy a bridge ???

DutchRailnut wrote:wanna buy a bridge ???

Is the Hellgate for sale?

There's also political benefit to allowing one day disruption and then stepping in; it shows a command presence. "Hey, look, I stopped the strike!".

As far as Taylor Law, etc., there are job actions the union could take on the Q-T. Not sure if it's advisable...

LIRR and MNCR are NOT under Taylor law, that was nixed years ago, both railroads are under federal law and go by Railway Labor Act.

job actions on the qt are difficult to keep on the qt. there was a one day srike by the ble on the li years ago which resulted in fines for all members of the ble including liens put on the officers of the ble.but it did force a settlement. different time and players tho,not sure how it would play out today

northpit, are you talking about the strike back in '95 where the engineers got certification allowance? If so, those guys made out in the long run and was a small sacrifice in the near term.

In addition to some of the sticking points I mentioned prior hand, the MTA also wanted to extend contributing into the MTA Defined Benefit plan and wanted a tiered structure where the percentages varied depending on seniority. Mind you with the inception of the MTADB, the members lost the Vanguard at the time. Right now its 3% on all gross earnings with no cap for 10 years, they wanted to extend contributing for the entire duration of your employ but that 3% figure changed depending if you had 10 years paying into it or if you're still reaching the 10 year mark. It would've went up to 4% if you were hired out from '07 and on, and prior hand it would've been 2%.

Ask them what the certification pay was in 1995, same as it is 18 years later. The MTA is a cruel mistriss and doesn't forget. The current MTA chairman was LIRR president on Memorial Day 1995

DutchRailnut wrote:LIRR and MNCR are NOT under Taylor law, that was nixed years ago, both railroads are under federal law and go by Railway Labor Act.

Thanks for the correction.

freightguy, nice observation. Certification allowance has remained stagnant for the LIRR engineers.

Jeff, while I do agree with your theory Cuomo lately has had a few hiccups with his approval rating taking a hit. It's unknown whether Hillary Clinton will definitely run for president come 2106, and until then I don't think Cuomo wants to play with fire. The public is already fed up with both the LIRR and MNR lately and I doubt they will praise Cuomo for allowing a 1 day strike for the benefit of his political stock. Just my 2 cents.

freightguy wrote:Ask them what the certification pay was in 1995, same as it is 18 years later. The MTA is a cruel mistriss and doesn't forget. The current MTA chairman was LIRR president on Memorial Day 1995

MNCR has certification at 20 minutes of Hourly pay so it goes up every time contract gets adjusted, we also get certification for each tour of duty, so Engineer doubling out will get it twice in one day.
We also get Certification when laying in on Guarantee day on extra list.

I was referring to the engineers on the other side of the sound. The LIRR BLE negotiated hourly based certification pay for NYAR engineers and conductors only to roll it into the general wage in the next contract. The general chairman at the time commented how he wished he was able to negotiate a progressive hourly based cert pay for his own LIRR members being locked into the same daily rate since 1995.

The 1995 sickout was quite a big price to pay for BLE Div. 269

In addition to paying hefty fines across the board, all of the leadership had liens placed on their houses. One of their committeemen could not even retire and move due to the lien placed on his house by the carrier.

Even the scent of a job action has the carrier running to court.

No fines where paid. I think they had to be good boys and girls for 2 years.

About the bridge for sale... I could be wrong, and If I am I will be corrected. In my time with the RR I dont recall ever being forced back to work by the republicans. Im pretty sure every time it was democrats who presented the legislation. Look at the witch hunts going on now, do you see any republicans involved in it? Think about it kids..