Talks between Long Island Railroad workers and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority collapsed Monday — less than a week before a threatened strike that would strand 300,000 riders.
Negotiations fell apart amid angry charges by the unions’ top negotiator that MTA bigs suggested workers wanted to walk the picket line.
“There’s no way shape or form that they want to do this,” said Anthony Simon, leader of the Sheet Metal Air Trail Transportation union.
“This is absurd. We are disgusted. We’re sad about the fact that the riding public has to deal with this,” he insisted.
Eight unions have set a potential strike deadline for 12:01 a.m. Sunday — although they warned that workers would prepare laying the groundwork and start slowing service down as early as Wednesday.
One sticking point is a salary hike, although it doesn’t seem as if both sides are too far apart on that issue.
Sources said the MTA last week offered a 17 percent hike in wages and benefits over seven years – and the union demanded 17 percent over six years.
But Simon, without giving details, suggested that a further sticking point was the demand by management that newly hired LIRR employees be forced to surrender certain benefits.
“They want to cripple the new employees. We don’t want to do that. When you say you won’t counter, that’s not the right way,” he said.
“We will be interested in hearing a counter-offer from the MTA. We want to do what’s right for the riding public,” he said, adding that he hoped Gov. Cuomo would take a more active roll in the stalled talks.
Tom Prendergast, chairman and CEO of the MTA, left the failed negotiating session Monday acknowledging that while the two sides engaged in a “very productive discussion” with union representatives Thursday, they were still far apart.
“There’s a long distance between the offer we have up on the table and their willingness and ability to be able to respond to that and close this gap,” he said.
He insisted that the MTA needed to do this “in a fiscally responsive way, and we’re not able to get there.”
Currently, there are no further scheduled talks between the opposing sides.
Meanwhile, Mayor de Blasio, who goes on vacation to Italy on Friday, said he was optimistic that a strike could be averted — and that plans were already under way in a worst-cast scenario.
“There is still serious hope that we can resolve this. We have the city, the state, the MTA, working with the LIRR unions,” he told reporters.
“There is hope that this can be resolved. I hope everyone will continue talking.
“In the event that there is a strike, the contingency plans are very, very strong. We are heavily benefiting from the fact that it’s July, the fact that most people are off, the fact that a lot of people because of technology can work from home.
“I feel confident we’re in good shape,” he said.
– Additional reporting by Tara Palmeri
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