Chief Janno Lieber says MTA will press LIRR unions after Post reveals wasteBy Nolan Hicks
February 6, 2023
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber told state lawmakers Monday he will push the powerful labor unions at the Long Island Rail Road for work rule reforms, following a Post expose of widespread waste and inefficiency at the agency that cost hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
The contracts allow engineers to earn quadruple time on a standard eight-hour shift and conductors earn double pay for working a train for a Mets game; while LIRR labor practices include putting as many as a half-dozen ticket collectors on a single train.
Just bringing the LIRR wages and work force efficiency in line with Metro-North would save the MTA more than $200 million annually, the investigation found.
“My predecessors had railroad agreements, many of which date to the early 20th century, because the Long Island Rail Road’s been around that long,” Lieber said. “Sometimes, you need to update. And that’s what we will do. We’ll put those issues on the table.”
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/02/06/chief-janno-lieber-says-mta-will-press-lirr-unions-after-post-reveals-waste/
