The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) commuter strike in the US state of New York has entered its third day, and commuters from the New York suburbs are looking for alternative ways to get to work, by car, bus and subway.
Unions representing railroad workers and the Metropolitan Transportation Agency (MTA), which operates the railroad, have failed to reach an agreement despite pressure from the National Mediation Board and New York Governor Katie Hochul.
A union spokesman said negotiators returned to the negotiating table early today.
At the same time, demonstrators also came out early to protest.
The rail line serves hundreds of thousands of commuters from the suburbs and lives along a 190-mile stretch that includes Brooklyn and Queens in New York City and the Hamptons, a vacation destination for the rich and famous near the eastern tip of the area. The rail line has long provided people with an alternative to congested highways during rush hour.
Most users live outside New York City in two boroughs, almost three million of them.
The railway was closed and workers went on strike at noon on Saturday after five unions, representing about half of its workforce, walked off the job for the first time in three decades.
The International Association of Machinists and Airline Workers and the Transportation Workers Union said in a statement yesterday that the workers are not seeking special treatment but are simply struggling to keep up with the huge increase in the cost of living in the New York region after years without raises.
Unions and the MTA are negotiating a new contract through 2023, but negotiations have stalled over wages and healthcare.
At a press conference on Sunday, Governor Hochul said that workers would lose every dollar they would get with the new contract by remaining on strike for three days.
MTA President Gianno Lieber also appealed for a quick resolution to the dispute.
Federal law makes it very difficult for railroad workers to go on strike and Congress is even allowed to block a strike, but members of Congress have not intervened like they did for the nation's freight railroads in 2022.
Hochul, a Democrat, blamed Republican President Donald Trump for cutting short the mediation in September, which she said prompted unions to strike.
Trump fired back on his Truth Social network that he had nothing to do with it. "No Katie, it's your fault and now that I've reviewed the facts you should not have allowed this to happen," Trump wrote.
Hochul called on companies and agencies that employ Long Island workers to allow them to work from home, whenever possible.
The MTA said the union's initial wage demands would have led to large fare increases and would have been disproportionate to the wages of other unionized workers.
Unions, which represent train drivers, locomotive engineers, signalmen and others, have said that significant raises are needed to help workers keep pace with inflation and rising costs of living.
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