MTA gives 4-day strike rebate to LIRR monthly ticket holders, waives $10 refund fee

Monthly LIRR ticket holders who had no train to ride during the railroad union strike are entitled to a refund for four days of missed trips, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority ruled Wednesday.

The MTA Board also voted to waive the $10 refund fee for those who could not use tickets during the work stoppage.

The $2.4 million refund package comes on top of the cost of a new four-year contract with wage increases of about 15% for 3,500 Long Island Rail Road workers who walked off the job, shutting down the nation's largest railroad. It left tens of thousands of commuters scrambling to figure out how to get around, and what to do with the train tickets they couldn't use.

The historic work stoppage saw LIRR service cease early Saturday morning and not fully resume until Tuesday afternoon. Although many monthly ticket holders may have not taken the train on Saturday or Sunday, and were able to ride the LIRR home by the Tuesday evening rush hour, MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said he believed a four-day credit was appropriate.

"I didn’t think it was fair to assume that monthly ticket holders only travel on the weekdays," Lieber said following the MTA Board’s unanimous vote in favor of the plan. "Usually, that’s a process that requires a lot of debate and takes time to figure out. It’s simple. We’re going to give you your money back for those four days that were lost."

The LIRR's 68,000 monthly ticket holders will receive refunds of about 13% -- the equivalent of about four out of the 31 days in May. Electronic ticket holders will have the refund automatically credited to their accounts, while paper ticket holders will have to fill out a form.

For those who bought other kinds of tickets and could not use them, the railroad will waive the usual $10 surcharge for fees. The MTA is also working on a plan for refunds for the 140 weekly tickets sold during the strike, a spokesperson said.

The $2.4 million refund plan comes on top of other costs incurred by the MTA because of the strike, including the cost of special shuttle buses connecting displaced LIRR riders to subway stations in Queens. MTA officials last month said the buses would cost between $325,000 and $550,000 per day.

MTA: No precedent for other unions

Still, Lieber on Wednesday maintained that the labor dispute was resolved without busting the MTA's budget, and without the public having to shoulder additional costs through extra tax increases or fare hikes beyond those already planned. Previously, MTA officials had said giving out raises requested by the unions, whose member made $136,000 on average, would mean doubling the size of their next planned fare hike, to 8%, cutting service, raising taxes or laying off workers.

Lieber also warned against the assumption that other MTA unions will now be entitled to the same 4.5% raises that LIRR workers secured in the fourth year of their new contract. 

"We wouldn’t have made the deal if we thought it would take us backward financially, and it doesn’t," Lieber said. "We’re going to make sure we stay, absolutely, within the MTA’s financial plan."

Board member Neal Zuckerman, who chairs MTA's finance committee, predicted that it would not be the last time that union workers made the case for higher-than-usual raises because of the skyrocketing cost of living. 

Zuckerman said the labor dispute also highlighted the need to address "arcane" union work rules that can let LIRR workers triple their wages in a single shift if they get a certain assignment. 

While the contract settlement did not include any major concessions, Lieber said the MTA made it clear to the unions that "the offer remains open" to trade work rules for added compensation.

MTA officials have said that LIRR workers who went on strike will not be compensated for the days they did not come to work.

At the board meeting, Lieber and LIRR president Rob Free both expressed appreciation for LIRR unions not involved in the strike, who showed up throughout the work stoppage, helping maintain the rail system and facilitating a prompt return of service.

Christopher Leathers, the LIRR labor representative on the MTA Board and a member of the nonstriking International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, noted that some of the nonstriking workers, including train conductors who walk the trains checking tickets, endured the "public backlash for a strike that they neither caused nor controlled."

Gerard Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuter Council and a nonvoting MTA Board member, acknowledged that conductors were "the subject of misdirected anger."

"As part of the Commuter Council, I'd like to apologize for that," Bringmann said.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

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.