LIRR Union Negotiations/Newsday Editorial

They have plenty of money, they just don't want to give to the employees. Cuomo has his eyes on the White House and has dug his heels in . I don't think he will back down publicly. This could play out on the national stage, and I am curious to see if the liberals will treat him like they did Scott Walker. How long will it take the Clintons to throw Andy under the bus?

Commuter X wrote:Anyone think that the recent announcement to reduce the next fare increase to 4% from 7.5% has nothing to do with the upcoming negotiations?

RT&S put out an article a few days ago commenting on the MTA's five-year financial plan and makes note of what you just said.

As a result of improved MTA cost cutting and increased tax and operational revenue, the MTA anticipates that the previously announced 2015 and 2017 fare and toll increases would be designed to yield an increase of four percent. This amount is almost half of the 7.5 percent yields that had been previously projected.

Additional investments are being made to pay down unfunded pension and health and welfare liabilities. The plan also increases the contributions to fund "Other Post-Employment Benefits" (OPEB), primarily healthcare costs for current and future retirees; assumes labor agreements that are currently open will be settled with three years of net-zero wage growth and also assumes that state budget actions will reflect full remittance to the MTA of all funds collected on its behalf.

Full article: http://www.rtands.com/index.php/passeng ... hannel=281" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There was some talk at the work place recently that the MTA has been taking money out of the MTADB pension over the past few years using it to cover other things. Numbers being mentioned were tens of millions of dollars. Although NYS is considered one of the more solvent states with pensions considered funded, the the pension is an MTA pension and not one backed by NYS.

Marge, if Clinton does make her expected run for the White House I don't see Cuomo challenging her. The Clinton's already are after Obama with the current Affordable Care Act flop and its potential effect on the Democratic party's run for holding onto the White House in 2016.

Word broke out at MNCR that the labor unions with the LIRR partaking in the PEB #244 did well and the recommendations were labor friendly. A lot of people feel that both labor and the carrier will exhaust this panel and move onto a second PEB but for now the outlook does look positive for labor.

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/revi ... -1.6664795" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

here you go

Did anyone read the comments at the end of the article? I truly find it alarming that there is so much hatred for people who work for the LIRR. Both union workers and management. People who go to work to support their families. Even if your a management employee---------gee whiz. What ever happend to getting paid an honest wage for an honest day of work. Everything has come down to have and have nots. Maybe this is the wrong forum to post this but I had to say something. I feel for those who work there. I'm done with my rant.

A step in the right direction but not the end of the road.

$10/day Certification allowance too. Newsday readers hate anyone who makes more than $10/hour. Envious underachievers.

LIRR272, I concur with your assessment with the comments regarding the article. Class warfare at it's finest. I have read the report in its entirety and some of the findings were interesting. You have to understand that when both the organizations (unions) and the carrier (MTA/LIRR) meet the books are opened. They found the MTADB plan to be solvent and they are made note that contracts within the RR's should not mirror that negotiated with other state employees. Another misconception a lot of people have with work rules is its value. Sure, people will disagree why some crafts have lucrative scope rules but you have to look deeper to see its overall value.

Heres a good example that is again brought up on the Newsday soapbox of comments. The common feeling is every engineer must be getting a co-mingle a day, when in actuality happens to benefit the top 2-3% of the roster. And management has made moves to avoid penalty payments. While the work rule is there, perhaps it is not being violated thus incurring a penalty payment. Work rules are there to protect the worker and give definite parameters for management. Even though organized labor has sustained black eyes in the past and are nowhere near the super power they once were decades ago, they were the origin of some of the things even private sector workers enjoy such as the 5 day 40 hour work week. These angry peons ranting in the comments section fail to realize that.

This was the first PEB board out of a possible 2, and were mere recommendations based upon findings on both parties. Whether they move onto another PEB or they negotiate with what the report is suggesting is anyone's next guess.

Another setback in contract negotiations. Might want to start planning those extended vacations:
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/lirr ... -1.6807527" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(Requires an account for full reading, but you get the gist of it.)

not really a setback, if no second PEB is requested they can be released for self help as early as march.

Obama can appoint the same three people to the board, plus the second board could be more generious.

I don't believe there will be a strike. There will be a deal in place before the summer. But in the event there is a strike, the plan is to continue to use engineers (BLE is not part of this PEB) and operate the towers with managers qualified in the towers and control centers. As long as we have engineers, managers in the control centers and managers qualified in there trade, i.e., track, signal, etc., and we do, there will be some service. It wouldn't be the full schedule because of the minimal personel available for infrastructure and maintenance. That is probably the only thing that would cut down the service. Tickets sales, customer service and things like that will suffer but what commuter would complain? But I do not think there will be a strike.

I really don't think many engineers will cross that picket line.

For their own sake and that of their family it would certainly not be advisable to cross picket lines.

Datenail wrote:.......in the event there is a strike, the plan is to continue to ........ operate the towers with managers qualified in the towers and control centers. As long as we have engineers, managers in the control centers and managers qualified in there trade, i.e., track, signal, etc., and we do, there will be some service.

BART did this last year and it didn't work out too well for them.

One craft you didn't mention are conductors. Can't move a train with out the conductor.