The NEW LIRR Strike Thread - Please Play Nice, People (bankrupt, school district)
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Seriously?? What about their new thing of putting the trains on different tracks than they're usually on. How annoying!!! My train is usually on 18 or 21. The other day, it was on 17... yesterday, I forget the track but it wasn't the normal one and we had to wait for the other train to leave (LATE) before our train could even pull into the station.
The LIRR workers are absolutely doing this intentionally! I hope that, if they do strike, everyone will tell them to buzz off once they're back working and come around asking for tickets. IF everyone tells them "buzz off, we're not paying" What can they do??? Get everyone arrested?????
Oh god forbid you have to go to a different track your normal train is on! Seriously???? Have you seen all the work going on in the tunnels???? That couldn't be the issue??
Oh god forbid you have to go to a different track your normal train is on! Seriously???? Have you seen all the work going on in the tunnels???? That couldn't be the issue??
Funny, it didn't become an issue until just this week And yes, anyone who commutes knows the drill about the tracks and the benefit of knowing which track your train will be on EVERY DAY.
The LIRR employees are screwing with the people who are paying their inflated salaries.
And liberals want people to give up their vehicles and live in "smart growth" urban communities? Invest in public transit, so that your private sector job can be held ransom by some greedy public sector union? No, thanks. I feel for you guys, am ecstatic that I moved off Long Island last year, and will have no trouble getting to my private sector job from my mid-western suburb in my giant, comfy SUV.
Oh god forbid you have to go to a different track your normal train is on! Seriously???? Have you seen all the work going on in the tunnels???? That couldn't be the issue??
You know, it's little things like last minute track changes, that add up day-after-day, year-after-year. If only it was the track changes, but it's the chronically late trains, dirty trains, broken lavatories, equipment problems, signal problems and too many 'minor' annoyances to enumerate here, that add up.
We pay huge fares, taxes, surcharges and penalties and the MTA just keeps on spending more. Sure management is incompetent, right down to that dolt Helena Williams and Prendergast, but the unions are like the rest of NY unions, G-R-E-E-D-Y.
In the end, we fare-payers will pay more than our share for far less service than we deserve.
You know, I used to think that people who blamed random train problems like that on intentional actions were crazy, but with the way this strike business has been acting up lately, I'm starting to think they may have a point. It does seem a little convenient, really. I wouldn't put it past some of the 'angrier' type of workers like you see on Newsday in the comments section when a LIRR strike story comes up.
Funny, it didn't become an issue until just this week And yes, anyone who commutes knows the drill about the tracks and the benefit of knowing which track your train will be on EVERY DAY.
The LIRR employees are screwing with the people who are paying their inflated salaries.
I commute every day, big deal, I have to actually wait for them to announce what track my train is leaving on. Track changes happen ALL THE TIME.
I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous! First of all, "it will go til either side breaks"? Why is it viewed as BREAKING? Why can't it be viewed as NEGOTIATING? COMPROMISING?
"The workers will want back to work before the MTA gives a hoot about its passengers." Also inaccurate. If this were true, the strike wouldn't even happen in the first place.
Also, from what I can see, the MTA improved their offer SIGNIFICANTLY from the previous one made (from 11% to 17% over 7 years (with healthcare contributions). What about that was so unacceptable?
This whole this is garbage for a number of reasons. But the first is, it doesn't matter WHAT the MTA offers or how close it is to what the Unions are demanding. There is no such thing as negotiation here. It's their way, or strike.
CSTEEN, I shortened your post, just to keep a few things.
You answer yourself why I said its breaking and not negotiation. Neither side will move. They wont without force.
The employees do not want to walk off, I've talked to them. Some are loud jerks, that dont know the process.
I stand by what I said, The MTA will stand stronger longer than the employees can endure not working and getting paid. The strike only hurts two groups of people.
The railroad employee and the 170,000 people that use it each day. (two ways = the 300,000 number)
The MTA will save money not running its trains and paying the operating costs.
The big issue is splitting the workforce into old vs new. New people having to work twice as long to reach their full pay as people already there sucks. Right now a new employee will work 5 years before they may the bulletined pay. MTA wants it to be 10 years. That will affect the new hires, who will resent the old. Same thing with the increase in medical/pension payments.
The 7 years vs 6 year contract is taking an effective 0% one year. Not the end of the world. Its the splitting of the workforce the unions wont accept. (It's a divide and conquer tactic)
The unions had a wish list, the MTA had a wish list. The process in the RLA, brought both parties to a Presidential appointed mediation board, which looked at many factors, and recommended a solution that was a compromise between both sides. MTA refused to accept it. They went before a second board, where the union's 'wish list' was the original boards compromise. What they're asking for now is THAT finding.
Sad part is, this process starts all over again in 2016 (or 2017)
People may not recall what you said to them, but they will always remember how you made them feel .
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