Union officials said Friday that New York’s members of Congress averted an LIRR strike this spring after sending a letter to the MTA earlier this week.
MTA chairman Thomas Prendergast said on Thursday that the authority would call for a second board of President Obama-appointed negotiators if an agreement isn’t reached next week during negotiations with the National Mediation Board in D.C.
Calling a second board will postpone LIRR workers from walking off the job until July 20.
“Without that letter, we would not be here saying we averted a strike,” said Anthony Simon, head of the Sheet Metal, Air, and Transportation Union.
MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg said the MTA has been weighing a second presidential board for weeks, and that the timing of the letter from Congress was coincidental.
“The MTA wants to resolve these issues at the negotiating table, and we remain hopeful we can do so,” he said in a statement.
Transport Workers Union Local 100 president John Samuelsen said on Friday that transit workers would support the LIRR strike in any way possible, short of violating the Taylor’s Law—which prohibits most public workers from striking.
The law does not cover LIRR employees.
“We’ll fight this fight as if it’s our livelihoods on the line,” said Samuelsen.