LIRR Union Negotiations/Newsday Editorial

Curious as to how all of my comments get deleted when I try to correct some of the glaring inaccuracies found in the media. Today's Newsday editorial was case in point, I tried to enter a comment and all of the intelligent ones get deleted and then comments are closed. I'm not surprised, but what a joke it is trying to straighten out the constant stream of lies and misinformation!

Krispy, understand that amateur journalists at Newsday will only allow what they want people to see.

80% of the commentators are people living in their parents basement, playing video games all day long, and probably cannot hold a job for more than a month. They blame everyone else for their shortcomings. Most of these sheep still believe this potential strike is illegal and demanding Junior pull a Reagan. If they can't have it, no one else should either.

Both sides are at fault here

The MTA for letting it get this far and the union for boasting about shutting down the system

The reality is that 5000 union members should not be allowed to jeopardize the LI economy and disrupt the commute of 300,000 workers

The law that enabled this is antiquated and needs to be updated

If both sided do not find common ground in less than 1 week, a lot of people will be hurt economically

Personally, I do not have a dog this hunt, and I will be working from home in the event of a strike

Commuter X

The unions have been working without a contract (no raises) for 4 years!

LI is one of the most expensive places to live.

The LIRR is absolutely necessary to the economy of the region.

Vehicular traffic would come to a stand-still if there was no LIRR. (In other words, the traffic would be a bigger mess than it already is during rush-hours.)

Maybe a couple of days strike would show all those who DON'T use the railroad how VALUABLE and necessary it is for them too!

Nobody is shedding tears about how unions haven't received a raise in 4 years.

The consensus is everyone collectively should suffer and band together for the race to the bottom. Do you think the riding public cares that organized labor is at risk for being well behind inflation? Look at the archived articles Newsday has posted recently back from the '94 strike. They were bantering then about the LIRR workers being over compensated.

At the peak of the dot com bubble and the real estate market, these people were looking down and laughing at LIRR workers. Post recession these same people who are laid off or under employed are now envious of the decent blue collar gig the LIRR, teachers and police officers have.

Morisot wrote:The unions have been working without a contract (no raises) for 4 years!

LI is one of the most expensive places to live.

The LIRR is absolutely necessary to the economy of the region.

Vehicular traffic would come to a stand-still if there was no LIRR. (In other words, the traffic would be a bigger mess than it already is during rush-hours.)

Maybe a couple of days strike would show all those who DON'T use the railroad how VALUABLE and necessary it is for them too!

I agree that the LIRR is necessary for the economy to function

That is why, regardless of there is a strike or not, the Railway Labor Act (RLA) needs to be updated

5000 union workers should not be allowed to disrupt the economy, and a anti-labor Republican House should not be in a position to embarrass a Democratic Governor

If a strike does happen, the MTA, the Union leaders and our Government has failed us (apologies if I missed someone)

Commuter X

Disappointment in the government --- yeah, Commuter X, I think that every time I hear about another ballplayer's stratospheric compensation --- while the taxpayers have to pay for the stadiums and arenas!

Morisot wrote:Disappointment in the government --- yeah, Commuter X, I think that every time I hear about another ballplayer's stratospheric compensation --- while the taxpayers have to pay for the stadiums and arenas!

We have a choice in November to replace the Governor and the entire House of Representatives

Guess how I will be voting

Let me guess -- you'll vote for even more government and more regulation. You fit right into New York.

But you'll probably cry like a girl when the same government raises your taxes or puts price controls on your compensation.

Sorry Dude, you still live in America, and if a guy doesn't want to come to work he doesn't have to. ...Even if you don't like it.

Gov Cuomo says that a settlement is not in his hands. Don't the MTA board members work for him?
He did the same thing with LIPA following Hurricane Sandy. "Not my fault".
I guess he doesn't want to make a stand with the election coming up.
As for voting them all out - last election Schumer and congressmen/women were up for election - also Gilderbrand was up to finish the term. We could have cleaned house. Guess what - they all got re-elected.

Mr. Tool,

I see you don't share my disdain for our local politicians

Unfortunately, the way things work here, and the way they have worked is that all decisions are made by three men in a room in this State

If you think this is transparent government, then vote for Junior ... that is if you live in NY State

So today's Newsday article about the LIRR focuses on the current membership telling union leadership not to sell out the unborn. From the comments I have been reading from the article online, there are lots comparing this to what happened in Detroit years ago with the UAW. Another ill faded hypothesis. At this rate, Newsday believes it can sell garbage to garbage men.

In any organized labor force industry, one thing to keep in mind is dividing the membership weakens unions. The MTA is well aware of this and you can bet your bottom dollar that if the current membership sells out the unborn, in the short term with contract negotiations they will be the voting majority. The pendulum will swing and the strategy then will be that the middle to senior membership sold them out.

In my opinion, the MTA over reached itself with asking new employees double the step rate it takes to reach 100% of pay. In most cases that means 10 years. That in itself will be the first thing once the honeymoon ends will anger members who hired after ratification of that agreement.

And just like that after 45 minutes of talks today, Baby Huey walked out. The UTU have stated they intend on striking this Sunday, at 12:01am. It is also worth mentioning De Blasio has intentions of replicating a play from Bloombergs' playbook back when NYC endured a terrible snow storm back in 2010 when the mayor was nowhere to be found or reached for contact. De Blasio intends to go on his Italy getaway with a strike looming with the LIRR, insisting his "exceedingly able," staff is able to hold the fort down. Can't wait to see that happen.

6 more days to go.

This is MAD (Mutually Asssured Destruction). Both sides appear to want a strike

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The news stations have been reporting that if a strike appears likely there will be some service reductions this week.

So does that mean that the extra Montauk train on Thursday, the extra Montauk Friday trains, and the extra Greenport train on Friday
won't be running ??

Ken