Here’s where to focus your anger for the – Latest News
The strike by 5 unions Saturday that shut down the Long Island Rail Road has created an unimaginable transportation nightmare, not simply for riders however complete the area.
It leaves numerous of us with no straightforward or sensible method to journey between Long Island and the metropolis, and each vehicle on the roads subject to painful site visitors.
And whereas there’s been no scarcity of finger-pointing for this calamity, make no mistake: One and just one occasion is to blame — the unions.
As traditional, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s response was to goal President Donald Trump.
“The disruption that Long Islanders face starting tonight is the direct result of reckless actions by the Trump Administration to cut mediation short,” ranted Hochul.
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Cut mediation short? Workers’ contracts expired three years in the past. And the mediation Team Trump organized final 12 months added months more to the talks.
Trump, in the meantime, and Hochul’s GOP rival for governor, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, blasted her for the strike.
“You should not have allowed this to happen,” chided the prez.
“Kathy Hochul failed to do her job,” charged Blakeman.
Huh? What was she supposed to do — order the MTA to cave to the unions’ outrageous calls for and easily move the value to riders (or taxpayers)?
Those calls for would translate into an 8% hike in LIRR fares, she famous.
Trump and Blakeman’s criticism line up with that of International President of the Transport Workers Union John Samuelsen, who preposterously claimed Hochul triggered the strike so the “blame would be cast on Blakeman and the Republicans.”
Sorry: Blakeman had nothing to do with the negotiations, so there’s no method Hochul may’ve gotten away with blaming him.
No, duty lies solely with the 5 unions, which signify a mere 3,500 members, together with engineers, signalmen and machinists.
They determined to take 300,000 every day riders — and a main slice of the regional financial system (state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli places toll at $61 million a day) — hostage to extort salaries, advantages and work guidelines much better than what average private-sector staff, and even different MTA staff, get.
Per the MTA, average money compensation for the 5 unions’ members topped $136,000 final 12 months, placing them amongst the principally extremely paid rail staff in America.
Some 250 of them, as The Post experiences, are hauling in six-digit extra time pay alone.
And although different unions accepted raises totaling 9.5% to cowl the final three years, the 5 grasping unions demanded a enhance for a fourth 12 months, of 5%.
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Nonetheless, the MTA bent over backward to come as close as doable to assembly these calls for — with out bankrupting the system, riders or taxpayers.
Its final offer included the equal to 4.5% pay hikes for the fourth 12 months.
And nonetheless the unions struck.
If there’s any blame left to go round, it ought to goal the federal law that lets LIRR unions, particularly, strike — in contrast to, say, New York’s Taylor Law, which prohibits most public staff from such job actions.
That law wants to be modified: Public transportation is way too important to permit it to be weaponized by grasping unions.
Meanwhile, credit Hochul and MTA boss Janno Lieber for standing up to the union thugs.
New Yorkers affected by the strike ought to direct their anger towards these unions — and allow them to know they received’t be held hostage to their outrageous calls for.
