The LIRR unions scoffed Wednesday at the MTA’s offer of 17 percent wage hikes over seven years, no changes to pensions and work rules on Wednesday — and are on track to leave hundreds of thousands of Long Islanders stranded with a July 20 strike.
“MTA knows full well that its latest so-called proposal had as much chance at being taken seriously as its contingency plans have of getting people to work in the event of a strike,” said Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation union leader Anthony Simon.
Over 260,000 Long Islanders will be affected by the workers walking off the job.
The railroad’s workers are already the highest paid in the country, and have the most generous pension benefits, according to the MTA.
The average employee planning to strike makes about $87,000 a year.
The authority’s offer to the LIRR is also more generous than the 8 percent raises that subway and bus workers recently got in their new five-year contract.
“We are affording it at great sacrifice,” said chairman Thomas Prendergast on Wednesday, who said the authority does not want Long Islanders to endure a strike.
The offer, if applied to both the LIRR and Metro-North railroads, is expected to cost the MTA about $40 million a year, though it will decrease over time as older workers retire and new workers start.
The money will be taken out of the MTA’s resources for capital programs, which is used for long-term infrastructure projects.