Long Island depends heavily on the railroad, with about 700 miles of tracks carrying nearly 300,000 weekday riders into New York City. Without rail service, replacing it would require major new highway capacity, additional tunnels, and large parking infrastructure. A three-day LIRR strike from Saturday to Monday shut down service and created severe commuting disruption. MTA Chair Janno Lieber emphasized that the striking unions include the highest paid railroad workers in the country and said their demands amount to a special deal compared with other MTA workers. The workforce has faced serious allegations and incidents, including overtime fraud, time card cloning, and vandalism of a biometric time clock.
"Workers on the railroad have been indicted for astronomical overtime fraud, been caught cloning time cards to swipe each other into work - and even vandalized a high-tech "biometric" time clock installed at a train yard to ensure crews were actually showing up. Labor negotiations are often contentious. Lieber is obligated to protect the MTA's finances. But his remarks were an instance of the pot call"
Read at Gothamist
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