A federal panel is trying to stick New Yorkers with an unaffordable bill for higher Long Island Rail Road salaries — which would then drive up costs, and fares, across the system.
No can do.
The LIRR unions are in the thick of a standoff with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Workers, predictably, want more take-home pay. The tapped-out MTA, on behalf of straphangers and taxpayers, is trying to hold the line to keep the subways, buses and commuter trains affordable for those who rely on them every day.
The MTA had offered railroad employees the same deal it extended to subway and bus personnel: three years without raises. If cash could be squeezed out of the system through productivity gains and other savings, many of which are crying out to be made, great. Otherwise, zip.
Normally, in the thick of such a stalemate, the two sides would get in a room, lock the door, and, through reciprocal arm-twisting, figure out what increases for workers are affordable.
Not this time. Since the LIRR is covered under the federal Railway Labor Act, the dispute went to an emergency mediation board appointed by President Obama.
The board’s judgment, handed down Saturday: The LIRR should provide yearly raises of 2.83% each and every year for six years .
The only problem here? Basic arithmetic.
It is a fact that more than half of the LIRR’s operating expenses already go to labor costs.
It is a fact that the LIRR workforce has long been the highest paid of all commuter rail lines in the country.
It is a fact that the cost of very generous pensions and free health care coverage are rising every year.
It is a fact that LIRR personnel are already — and will remain — eligible for federal railroad disability benefits above and beyond their state pensions (and that hundreds of retirees were caught scamming the disability system out of millions this year).
It is a fact that the LIRR is saddled with painfully outdated work rules, like an automatic additional day’s pay for an engineer running an electric locomotive and a diesel locomotive during the same shift.
And it is a fact that the MTA’s budget is balanced very precariously, with the fare hikes of 4% in 2015 and 2017 dependent on no raises.
The message should be: Change the bad old work rules, and find other savings, and raises will be in the offing. Refuse to budge, and you don’t get squat.
The law allows the LIRR President Helena Williams and MTA boss Tom Prendergast to ask for another panel.
They must do so immediately. Otherwise, the money train is leaving the station.