Why is the strike happening?published at 11:46 BST
Image source, Getty ImagesLong Island Rail Road trains stand unused at the Babylon yard in West Islip, New York
Five unions representing workers at the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), which stretches from New York City into the eastern suburbs of Long Island, voted to strike on Saturday after a contract agreement could not be reached with management at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
The unions, representing around 3,500 LIRR workers, are demanding higher pay. Both sides have already agreed to the terms of the first three years of a four-year contract, but reached a stalemate over the final year, which begins in June, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reported.
“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.
“We don’t want to be on the picket line,” Lang added. “But after three years without raises, we cannot make any more compromises to cover for the MTA’s mismanagement.”
The MTA’s chair and CEO, Janno Lieber, said in a press release following the strike announcement that it “cannot 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 added.
