NEW YORK (AP) — The Long Island Rail Road, North America’s largest commuter rail system, was shut down Saturday after unionized workers went on strike for the first time in three decades.
The railroad, which serves New York City and its eastern suburbs, ceased operations just after midnight after five unions representing about half its workforce walked off the job.
The unions and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the public agency that runs the railroad, have been negotiating for months on a new contract, with talks stalled over the question of workers’ salaries and healthcare premiums. President Donald Trump’s administration tried to broker a deal, but the unions were legally allowed to strike starting at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
An interesting question. I am sure the union's strike terms are not stupidly written to forbid closing everything up safely. I'm sure that "train crash caused by strike" would hurt their negotiations significantly.
I bet this was a headache for signalling and yard crew though, since their normal scheduled train movements would be replaced by moving everything into yards.
I wonder how long after midnight it was before the last person actually walked off - I imagine it would take a few hours to get every train in the system safely put away in yards.
I assume since they knew this was likely coming there was probably some planning on how to get everything safely put away.