LIRR strike plan: Rush-hour shuttle buses at 3 stations, urge work-from-home
Shuttle buses linking to Queens subway stops will run out of just three Long Island Rail Road stations if railroad workers go on strike next week, and only during rush hours, MTA officials said Thursday.
A week removed from a potential shutdown of the nation’s largest commuter rail system, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials offered new details of their plan for dealing with nearly 300,000 displaced riders — the majority of whom, they hope, can work from home.
"We couldn’t possibly replace the full service that the LIRR runs everyday," Shanifah Rieara, chief customer officer for the MTA said at Penn Station news conference Thursday afternoon. "But we are trying our best to accommodate those essential workers in an effort not to leave anyone stranded."
In the event of a strike, which could commence by 12:01 a.m. Thursday, the LIRR would operate buses every 10 minutes during the weekday rush hours between three railroad stations — Bellmore to Howard Beach, JFK Airport A train station, and Hicksville and Ronkonkoma stations to the 7 train station at Mets-Willets Point. MTA officials also encouraged commuters to consider NICE Bus routes linking to Flushing and Jamaica, where they can connect to subway lines.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- The MTA's contingency plan for a potential LIRR union strike as early as Sept. 18, includes limited, peak-hour shuttle bus service between three LIRR stations — Bellmore, Hicksville and Ronkonkoma — and subway stations in Queens.
- The MTA has begun communicating with customers about a potential strike, including by encouraging them to work from home or stay with family or friends who live in New York City.
- MTA officials said they hope to avert a strike through further negotiations. Union leaders accused MTA officials of stalling and being reckless and noted that they could avert a strike next week by requesting intervention from the White House.
On Thursday, the LIRR began directly informing customers and their employers about the potential for a strike. The railroad’s TrainTime app featured a service alert telling users about a "possible LIRR strike & service shutdown" next week and urging them to "work from home if possible." Similar audio alerts were relayed over the public address system at Penn Station. MTA officials in a news release also urged customers to "stay with friends or family living in or near New York City to take advantage of subway and bus service."
The threat of the first LIRR work stoppage since 1994 follows an impasse in contract negotiations between the MTA and five labor organizations representing just under half all LIRR union workers. The MTA wants the unions to accept the same three-year deal with 9.5% in raises already accepted by most LIRR workers. The unions say those raises don't keep up with inflation or with what other railroads throughout the United States are paying their workers.
In a statement Thursday, Kevin Sexton, vice president for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said the unions’ demands are "exceedingly reasonable, essentially the status quo when it comes to the cost of living."
"MTA’s response has been to stall, stall, stall," Sexton said.
Federal mediators last month declared that a voluntary settlement was out of reach, opening the door for a legal strike next week unless the White House intervenes by forcing both sides back into mediation. So far, neither the unions, the MTA nor Gov. Kathy Hochul have requested such intervention from the Trump administration.
Hochul has urged Republican federal lawmakers from Long Island, who she said have a "direct line" to President Donald Trump, to get involved and help avert a strike. On Wednesday night, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) in a statement said, "It’s not Congress but New York’s governor and the MTA who are primarily responsible for negotiating with LIRR unions" and blamed Hochul for the impasse.
MTA officials said Thursday they hope to avert a strike through further negotiations, but also suggested there was little wiggle room in their offer unless the unions agree to concessions, including changes to work rules that allow some employees to earn multiple days’ pay for minimal extra work.
"I can’t begin to tell you how many resources and hours are spent trying to work around and mitigate these expensive work rules just to provide service every single day," said LIRR President Robert Free. He added that the MTA is "not looking to just take these work rules" but is offering to compensate the workers to remove the provisions.
Free joined Hochul and MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber in casting blame for the looming strike on the National Mediation Board, which he said acted prematurely in releasing the unions from federal mediation, despite the unions not budging off their demands for 16% raises.
In a statement Thursday, Jeff Klein, general chairman of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 589, which represents more than 1,000 LIRR electricians included in the contract dispute, said the LIRR’s "mischaracterization of the unions’ position combined with its obvious attempt to strike fear in the hearts of the riding public while demonizing its workforce is shameless as well as reckless."
In a letter to Hochul Wednesday, the unions suggested that they have moved off past demands and their current proposal asks for less than 1% more in raises for each year of the three-year contract.
Klein also noted that the LIRR could avert a strike next week by "simply" requesting intervention from the White House — a move that, by federal law, would push back the deadline for a potential strike by several months.
Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.
