The coalition of unions representing LIRR workers says it is seeking improved pay and conditions after years without wage increases.
“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 LIRR General Committee at the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), one of the unions.
“After three years without raises, we cannot make any more compromises to cover for the MTA’s mismanagement,” Lang added.
MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber defended the agency’s position, saying it could not “responsibly make a deal that implodes MTA’s budget”.
“And we refuse to make a deal that puts it on riders and taxpayers to fund outsized wage increases – far beyond what anyone else at the MTA is getting – and for folks who are already the highest-paid railroad workers in the country,” Lieber said.
