The Long Island Rail Road workers threatening to go on strike this year make livings that most New Yorkers can only envy.
The average LIRR employee made $83,794 in 2013 — 62% higher than the city’s median household income — and more than a quarter of them boasted incomes north of $100,000, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy.
Both figures were the highest of any division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — excepting the MTA police.
And yet LIRR unions are threatening a September walkout unless they get raises totaling 17% over six years.
That inflated number came from a federal mediation panel, whose members recklessly ignored that the bulk of the MTA workforce just agreed to raises totaling 8.25% over six years, less than half the amount demanded by the LIRR workers.
Unlike their colleagues in other divisions, LIRR employees operate under federal railroad laws and have a legal ability to strike. But to invoke that right in the name of gaining excessive raises on top of already generous pay would be railroad robbery.
© 2014 New York Daily News
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