After hours of last-minute negotiations, no agreement on wage increases was reached between a coalition of five unions, including BLET, and the Long Island Rail Road. In accordance with the terms of the Railway Labor Act, the coalition’s 3,500 members went on strike just after midnight on Saturday, May 16.
BLET represents 500 locomotive engineers at LIRR, the nation’s busiest commuter railroad with 300,000 daily passengers. LIRR is owned and operated by the Metropolitan Transit Agency (MTA). This is the first strike at the carrier in 32 years.
“This strike would not have happened if the MTA and LIRR offered our members the reasonable terms the government recommended multiple times. But management refused,” said Mark Wallace, President of the BLET and the Teamsters Rail Conference. “We hope LIRR gets serious soon to avoid further unnecessary disruptions for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. They know where to find us when they’re ready: on the streets.”
BLET and fellow coalition railroaders have gone more than three years without raises throughout the process of bargaining for a new contract.
“To every LIRR passenger whose trip is disrupted, know that the MTA left us no choice but to strike,” said Gil Lang, General Chairman of the BLET’s LIRR General Committee. “We don’t want to be on the picket line. But after three years without raises, we cannot make any more compromises to cover for the MTA’s mismanagement.”
As part of the negotiating process, both parties argued their case before two federally-appointed Presidential Emergency Boards (PEB). Both Boards sided with labor as having the most reasonable contract offer. The report of PEB 254 is available here (PDF).
“The LIRR owns this strike. Union workers have sacrificed so much for the railroad for years while consistently bargaining in good faith for a fair contract,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “Hundreds of thousands of commuters rely on our members’ labor every day. The LIRR is stranding passengers while denying wages, benefits, and respect to BLET Teamsters and other hardworking union members. All 1.3 million members of the Teamsters Union are standing with every worker on strike. We will win this fight and the LIRR will give these essential workers the contract they’ve earned.”
In addition to BLET, the coalition of five LIRR rail unions includes the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS), the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and the Transportation Communications Union (TCU).