If you ride the LIRR you will sometimes hear employees of all sorts discussing work rules.
If you bet at Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, you might be surprised to learn that employees are prohibited from working two four and a half hour shifts consecutively when they pick their schedule and other employees choose not to pick the shifts that they selected in order or seniority.
Screw you? Screw me? Work rules are part of the larger culture of "working" ( or being paid for not working)
The LIRR like other bureaucracies or other entities may be characterized by too many people at the top being paid too much for doing too little? Such assertions are difficult to evaluation but are certainly a fair topic for discussion and examination. Politicians, lawyers, et al are scum. We the people of the State of New York would not have run NYC OTB in bankruptcy as they did. This is not to absolve the workers from any blame for their actions or inactions with respect to their customers.
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Editorial
Editorial: LIRR unions must budge to pay for raises
LIRR commuters wait for their train to come in at
Jamaica station July 8, 2014. A strike might be imminent if the the
talks between the union and LIRR administrators don't work out. (Credit: Newsday / J. Conrad Williams, Jr.)
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It's a simple plan, really. One that means Long Island would never be held hostage again.
The unions should agree as part of their collective bargain to support withdrawal from coverage by the federal Railway Labor Act, which would require an act of Congress. That would result in real long-term savings for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority while letting the workers reap every penny the unions claim they won from two federal mediation boards.
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The federal act lumps Long Island's commuter railroad in with national and international private-sector freight carriers, which never made any sense, and it's the real reason Long Island faces a strike. The act allows walkouts, while New York's Taylor Law prohibits strikes by city transit workers and other uniformed public employees.
This bizarre arrangement spawned the LIRR disability pension scandal in a federal system that is susceptible to abuse. And it's the reason rail commuting costs are so high for Long Islanders.
LIRR employees are the highest-paid commuter railroad workers in the country. They make an average of $87,182 a year when overtime is included. New York City subway and bus workers earn an average of $75,372 a year, with overtime, under a recently ratified contract with an 8 percent raise over five years.
And many city track workers, for example, toil in much worse conditions -- regular shifts include nights and weekends, often in dank, hot underground tunnels. When LIRR track employees work nights or weekends, they're paid overtime or double overtime.
Unfortunately, the LIRR unions won't support getting out from under the railway act. Their international parent unions don't want that to happen. The biggest fear of the internationals, whose leaders seem to be driving the locomotive in these negotiations, is losing the higher-paid, municipal commuter unions that fund the generous pensions for their private-sector freight members.
Are there other concessions the unions can come up with to help cover some of the cost of the 17 percent pay raises over six years that they want, or the 17 percent over seven years the MTA has offered? The unions have proposed a first-ever employee contribution to health coverage. That's a significant concession. But it's one most private sector workers swallowed long ago and, alone, it just isn't enough.
Changes in costly work rules would have delivered savings. But they're off the table. Recommendations by two presidential mediation boards included no changes, and at this late date, work-rule changes would be very complicated to negotiate. The unions also have shunned any changes for future employees. Union rejection of the MTA's proposal that new employees contribute more to pensions and health coverage and take longer to reach top pay is what led to the current impasse.
So, what's left? Pensions. For example, savings could be realized by increasing employee contributions or by capping the percentage of overtime hours used to calculate pensions. That cap is in place for workers hired since 2008. It should be extended to all employees.
An offer of real savings is the only way back to the bargaining table. That's where both sides should be, working furiously to spare Long Island the pain of a strike.
At least the LIRR operates 365 days of the year without religious preference just like the New York State Lottery but unlike Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation.
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Home > LI
Confidential > Stop
scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
Perhaps the LIRR needs slot machines just like Nassau OTB and Suffolk OTB which filed for bankruptcy.
You pull the lever and the machine pays you or tells you how much it wants for a ride?
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