BLET National Vice President Jim Louis addresses the news conference regarding the ongoing LIRR contract dispute.
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On Monday, September 15, after three years without a raise during a period of high inflation, Long Island Rail Road engineers represented by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) voted (476-5) to authorize a strike should one become necessary to achieve their contract goals. The vote results were announced at a jam-packed news conference in Manhattan.
“What we are seeking is exceedingly reasonable,” BLET General Chairman Gil Lang said in prepared remarks. “Today’s vote reflects the frustration of our members, but it also reflects their unity, their determination, and their belief in fairness. Our proposal seeks only to secure an agreement which provides for a modest improvement of real wages.”
It’s not just BLET members who are fed up. BLET is bargaining as part of a coalition of unions representing the majority of LIRR workers. In addition to BLET, the coalition includes the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS), the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and the Transportation Communications Union (TCU). Combined, the coalition represents 55.08 percent of LIRR’s unionized workforce.
In what the New York Times termed “an unusual step,” the coalition’s five unions announced at the news conference that they had requested a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB), confident that the union proposals were reasonable, and to counter rhetoric by the employer, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), that seemingly was designed to provoke a strike in 2025, ahead of an election year. The coalition had to be “the adults in the room,” Lang told the news conference.
In addition to announcing the results of the BLET strike vote and the request for a PEB, the coalition’s news conference provided an opportunity to combat a campaign of disinformation by the carrier. For example, MTA and LIRR officials in public statements repeatedly misstated the union’s wage demands, proposed length of the agreement, and size of the bargaining unit. The employer, joined by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, also falsely claimed a routine decision by the National Mediation Board to release the parties from mediation was somehow politically motivated. The carrier also repeatedly highlighted outlier salaries in an attempt to publicly shame BLET members and mislead the public about average wages.
In response to the request by BLET and coalition partners, the White House announced on September 16 that it would establish a Presidential Emergency Board to investigate the dispute.
If the parties cannot reach a voluntary settlement, BLET and the other unions are prepared to strike when self-help is permitted under the rules of the Railway Labor Act. All five unions have now voted to authorize a strike, if it proves necessary.
To learn more, watch this Teamsters-produced video from the September 15 press conference. Click here to view.
BLET General Chairman Gil Lang
BLET National Vice President Kevin Sexton