LIRR Union Negotiations/Newsday Editorial

Commuter X wrote:Currently the NYC Mayor plans leave for his Italian vacation on Friday. "He is confident the city could manage a strike effectively". We will see

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/07/14/ ... ike-looms/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Additionally, it appears our President has taken early retirement and will only do fundraising for his last 918 days in office

Correct me if I am wrong, I believe De Blasio's 10 day retreat is the longest vacation a NYC mayor has taken in recent history. Didn't this bone head take office in January and he needs 10 days off already? You all better hope we don't have a replica of this past winter with this banana in office. Please keep this in mind when he is up for re-election.

I second LI Tool's assessment with Simons' letter. Yet again, I find most of the stuff the MTA puts out as poorly orchestrated.

Slippy wrote:

Commuter X wrote:Currently the NYC Mayor plans leave for his Italian vacation on Friday. "He is confident the city could manage a strike effectively". We will see

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/07/14/ ... ike-looms/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Additionally, it appears our President has taken early retirement and will only do fundraising for his last 918 days in office

Correct me if I am wrong, I believe De Blasio's 10 day retreat is the longest vacation a NYC mayor has taken in recent history. Didn't this bone head take office in January and he needs 10 days off already? You all better hope we don't have a replica of this past winter with this banana in office. Please keep this in mind when he is up for re-election.

I second LI Tool's assessment with Simons' letter. Yet again, I find most of the stuff the MTA puts out as poorly orchestrated.

One issue ... I imagine many folks who post here do not live in NYC and are ineligible to vote in NYC elections

Slippy wrote:

Commuter X wrote:Currently the NYC Mayor plans leave for his Italian vacation on Friday. "He is confident the city could manage a strike effectively". We will see

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/07/14/ ... ike-looms/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Additionally, it appears our President has taken early retirement and will only do fundraising for his last 918 days in office

Correct me if I am wrong, I believe De Blasio's 10 day retreat is the longest vacation a NYC mayor has taken in recent history. Didn't this bone head take office in January and he needs 10 days off already? You all better hope we don't have a replica of this past winter with this banana in office. Please keep this in mind when he is up for re-election.

I second LI Tool's assessment with Simons' letter. Yet again, I find most of the stuff the MTA puts out as poorly orchestrated.

Bloomberg left NYC for Bermuda practically every weekend. Last I checked do-nothing, anti-rail Cuomo (wants trail on LIRR rockaway branch, CMRR & ADIX upstate) is the one with more sway over the MTA. He'll either swoop in last minute and magically fix this, or he'll follow his do-nothing dad's footsteps. Union will get all of it's raises, and have to pay in 1 or 1.5% to health care.

DeB' was in office for the harshest parts of this last winter, so... what's left? Wasn't Bloombag in Bermuda in December 2010 or 2011 when NYC got it's ass kicked by a major snow storm and he left no one in charge?

You're telling me someone can't take a god damned vacation just because they are an elected official? Bush 2 took months off before 9/11... The only NYC mayor that didn't take a vacation in recent memory was Giuliani, a cross dressing weirdo who broke up with his wife on TV.

I'm no fan of any of these politicians - they don't give a crap about the working man - but get your facts straight before you complain.

DogBert wrote:

Slippy wrote:

Commuter X wrote:Currently the NYC Mayor plans leave for his Italian vacation on Friday. "He is confident the city could manage a strike effectively". We will see

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/07/14/ ... ike-looms/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Additionally, it appears our President has taken early retirement and will only do fundraising for his last 918 days in office

Correct me if I am wrong, I believe De Blasio's 10 day retreat is the longest vacation a NYC mayor has taken in recent history. Didn't this bone head take office in January and he needs 10 days off already? You all better hope we don't have a replica of this past winter with this banana in office. Please keep this in mind when he is up for re-election.

I second LI Tool's assessment with Simons' letter. Yet again, I find most of the stuff the MTA puts out as poorly orchestrated.

Bloomberg left NYC for Bermuda practically every weekend. Last I checked do-nothing, anti-rail Cuomo (wants trail on LIRR rockaway branch, CMRR & ADIX upstate) is the one with more sway over the MTA. He'll either swoop in last minute and magically fix this, or he'll follow his do-nothing dad's footsteps. Union will get all of it's raises, and have to pay in 1 or 1.5% to health care.

DeB' was in office for the harshest parts of this last winter, so... what's left? Wasn't Bloombag in Bermuda in December 2010 or 2011 when NYC got it's ass kicked by a major snow storm and he left no one in charge?

You're telling me someone can't take a god damned vacation just because they are an elected official? Bush 2 took months off before 9/11... The only NYC mayor that didn't take a vacation in recent memory was Giuliani, a cross dressing weirdo who broke up with his wife on TV.

I'm no fan of any of these politicians - they don't give a crap about the working man - but get your facts straight before you complain.

Yes DB, I am well aware Bloomberg took many extended weekends. Did I just not post earlier about De Blasio pulling a BB when he was nowhere to be found during the 2010 storm? I am not defending BB.

In any event and to remain on topic with discussion, as a leader it is exercising poor judgement to not be around for a known potential crisis. If a strike were to break out, his city will be under an enormous strain with the additional traffic. Nice of him to have an "exceedingly able," staff but it doesn't excuse him for not being here. Nowhere in my context, DB, did I allude or state a person of his stature is not entitled to a vacation.

But to take a 10 day vacation 6 months into his new job with a potential strike on the horizon? If you're alluding to me that is acceptable I strongly disagree and think your head is in the sand.

3 days to go.

If there is a strike, what the hell is the mayor going to do anyway?

Will all the train dispatchers and block operators in the towers and Jamaica Control Center be included in the strike?

truck6018 wrote:If there is a strike, what the hell is the mayor going to do anyway?

Exactly. He has little or no say in this. Cuomo will magically appear at the last minute to fix it so he can not have egg on his face during an election year.

The city government is overflowing with managers who can deal with the traffic that a strike would cause. If they can't, they should be fired. I trust that DeB' delegated authority, unlike his megalomaniac predecessors. Everyone who works deserves a 10 day vacation - at the very god damned least.

As for what the unions want, 2.6% - current rate of inflation is 2.1%.

"Joshua Freeman, a professor of labor history at the City University of New York and author of “Working-Class New York,” said the unions’ demands were not unreasonable. “You’re really not talking about a whole lot more than inflation,” he said. “People used to expect to get real wage increases above inflation over the course of their careers, but now it’s portrayed as unreasonable to try to improve yourself, to try to get more than inflation.”

If the "source" is credible ...

EXCLUSIVE: MTA officials, LIRR union leaders close to reaching contract agreement to avert strike: source

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mta ... -1.1870144" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

LIRR strike averted, union officials say


http://nypost.com/2014/07/17/lirr-strike-averted/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Both The Journal and Gray Lady are reporting same:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/lirr-str ... 1405602458" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/18/nyreg ... nions.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brief Passages omitted as the situation remains in "flux".

Cuomo swoops in at the last minute and brokers a deal? I didn't see that coming at all!

How is this agreement substantially different from what the MTA offered weeks ago?

A press release following the news conference described the tentative contract:

-- Existing LIRR employees will receive 17 percent raises over six and a half years.
-- All employees will for the first time contribute to their health insurance costs
-- New employees will have different wage progressions and pension plan contributions.

This all seems to convienent from being far apart --- "gulf" and "gap" on Monday to a deal today....

Being cynical, almost feel like this whole thing was pre-planned on all sides to do all this and Cuomo to swoop in a broker a "deal", one already done days or weeks ago...... and that they were all really having pizza and playing poker in the law office meeting room.

Just think; Son has now "pulled off????" what Dad couldn't do.

Uh, when does Andy next stand for re-election?

nothing is pulled off, its only tentative agreement, the union members can still turn it down or so could MTA board in Sept.
which would but us back at strike tread at election time