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Long Island Rail Road strike delayed for now: What's next?
A Long Island Rail Road strike has been averted for now as union officials asked the Trump administration to intervene. FOX 5 NY's Jodi Goldberg has the latest.
LONG ISLAND - President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to appoint an emergency board that will be tasked with mediating the ongoing Long Island Railroad contract dispute.
Effective 12:01 a.m. E.T. on Sept. 18, a board composed of a chair and two other members, all of whom will be appointed by the president, will begin to investigate the nature of this dispute.
Within 30 days, the board will be expected to report their findings to Trump. The board will then terminate upon submission of the report.
Preventing a strike
Dig deeper:
A White House spokesperson said in a statement that the president did this at the unions' request "to bring both sides back to the negotiating table and prevent a strike that could have crippled the New York City area and disrupted the upcoming Ryder Cup on Long Island."
On Monday, five unions, which represent roughly half of the LIRR's 7,000 workers, asked the president to intervene in order to delay a strike that was said to begin Thursday.
These workers say that their wages haven't kept pace with the cost of living in New York. They turned down a 9.5% raise over three years—they want a 16% increase instead. The MTA argues that LIRR workers are already the highest-paid railroad employees in the country, and that many unions for these workers have already agreed to new contracts at the 9.5% rate.
The backstory:
NY Gov. Kathy Hochul previously blamed the president for ending negotiations between the unions and the MTA prematurely.
"I want the conversations to occur in a meaningful and productive way because we have over 300,000 people who rely on this system of transportation. But if the worst scenario occurs, I want this entire community to know that this was initiated by the Trump White House," Gov. Hochul said in a statement.
The last time the LIRR was on strike was 1994, and it lasted only three days. In 2014, a deal was reached just hours before another strike was set to begin.
The Source: Information above was sourced from Trump's latest executive order, Reuters, CBS News, The New York Times and previous FOX 5 NY reporting.