(The following story by Joie Tyrrell appeared on the Newsday website on March 9.)
NEW YORK — A federal magistrate sided with the Long Island Rail Road yesterday in its dispute with engineers who had threatened to strike over the railroad’s use of nonunion labor to move trains in a maintenance yard.
Magistrate Robert M. Levy recommended that U.S. District Judge Allyne Ross grant an injunction that would prevent a job action, and that she deny a request by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen that the railroad be stopped from using nonunion labor.
Objections to Levy’s report must be filed within 10 business days, and the union has said it plans to file one. Robert Evers, the union’s general chairman, said the issue will likely go to arbitration.
“Sadly, what the court has allowed them to do is whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it,” Evers said.
The union has contended the railroad violated its contract by agreeing to allow employees of Bombardier, the Canadian M7 train manufacturer, to move trains for the warranty work at the Arch Street shop in Long Island City, which is under lease to Bombardier.
The federal Railway Labor Act forbids the union from striking and directs the dispute to arbitration.
The attorney for the engineers had argued in court that it was a major dispute, which would not allow the railroad to alter its practices. As such, the attorney said, the railroad should immediately return to the “status quo,” meaning union engineers should be the ones to move trains and the act does not permit the LIRR to violate the status quo.
The railroad, however, said it was a minor dispute, as it involves interpretation of existing agreements and practice.
In his ruling, Levy deemed the dispute “minor,” saying that because “LIRR’s argument of contractual entitlement is not frivolous or obviously insubstantial, this dispute is a minor one.”
LIRR spokesman Brian Dolan said yesterday that the railroad was “pleased with the magistrate’s decision and it confirms our belief that this is a minor dispute.”