The risk of a Long Island Rail Road strike as early as July 20 hovered over officials at New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, even as board members Wednesday morning unanimously approved a five-year deal with its subway workers.
"We're disheartened and disappointed. That's upsetting to us," MTA chairman Thomas Prendergast told reporters in midtown Manhattan, about 12 hours after a second presidential emergency board, which the Railway Labor Act requires and President Obama created in March,
The MTA, one of the biggest municipal issuers with $32 billion in debt, operates LIRR, the largest commuter railroad in the United States. It carries an estimated 285,000 passengers each weekday.
Asked whether increased costs related to an LIRR settlement raise the specter of increased borrowing to supplement the MTA's four-year capital plan, Prendergast said: "Wherever we find resources, we look to backfill," said Prendergast. "That's a discussion that has yet to come."
Moody's Investors Service assigns an A2 rating to the MTA's primary credit, transportation revenue bonds. Fitch Ratings and Standard & poor's assign A and A-plus ratings, respectively.
Either the unions or LIRR can initiate "self-help" - jargon for a strike or lockout - beginning July 20.
The LIRR and the unions had submitted final offers for review after the MTA rejected the initial board. A consortium of eight LIRR unions recommended 17% pay hikes, including retroactive raises, over five years while the MTA recommended 11% over six years, paralleling the deal it struck with Transport Workers Union Local 100.
Voting in private session Wednesday, the MTA's board approved the TWU deal unanimously. Two days earlier, about 82% of the 15,000 voting union members approved it.
When the parties ended a two-year impasse last month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the TWU deal would not affect MTA fares and will be accommodated within revisions to the MTA four-year financial plan. The MTA has biennial toll and fare increases in accordance with a state funding plan Albany lawmakers enacted in 2009.
"We based our [LIRR] offer on the TWU settlement, which passed by one of the highest votes ever," said Prendergast. "We have to find a way to come back to the table, redouble our efforts and get to a fair and reasonable solution."
The presidential board, however, said the LIRR proposal "fails to bring with it the components and especially the same value as the Transit Authority-Local 100 agreement. Instead, the MTA's final offer follows the form but not the substance of the deal it entered into with Local 100."
The authority last month issued a request for proposals for alternative bus service for Long Island commuters in the case of a work stoppage.
"We want to stay at the table, but it's prudent judgment to make sure a plan is in place should we not be able to get an agreement," said Prendergast.
