Solidarity with LIRR Workers

Workers need pensionable raises that meet NYC cost of living, not lump-sum "bonuses"

A Better Contract, an independent movement representing thousands of UFT members, stands in full solidarity with our union siblings on the LIRR. Their fight sends a powerful message to working people everywhere, and there are serious lessons here for our own union leadership.

The MTA tried the same old playbook: drag out negotiations, refuse to bargain in good faith, offer flashy non-pensionable cash bonuses instead of real raises, and push healthcare costs onto newer workers. But the unions didn’t cave. They organized, took a strike authorization vote, prepared their members to fight, and rejected weak deals that sold out the future.

That is what real union power looks like. Not backroom politics. Not press conferences. Workers standing together and refusing to be divided.

The political class and corporate managers always tell workers to lower expectations, accept less, and be “realistic” while executives and insiders cash in. Railroad workers showed the country something different: when working people stay united, leadership has to answer to the members — not the other way around.

UFT members deserve the same fighting spirit: contracts with real raises, protected healthcare, long overdue respect for paraprofessionals, retirees, OT/PTs and newer members, and leadership willing to draw a line instead of settling for scraps.

Related Links:

Teamsters: 3,500 Workers Walk Out as BLET Teamsters, Union Coalition Launch LIRR Strike

Gothamist: LIRR strike shuts down nation’s busiest commuter train line

NY Post: LIRR strike begins after MTA fails to reach wage hike deal with union