NJ Transit train engineers have gone on strike, forcing the agency to suspend all rail service and disrupting commuters across the region.
Nearly 500 members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen walked off their jobs at 12:01 a.m. Friday after the union and NJ Transit failed to reach a last-minute agreement.
During a late-night news conference at Newark Penn Station Gov. Phil Murphy said the offer made to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen was almost exactly what they had asked for.
“Being paid the same wage as engineers at other transit systems in our region,” Murphy said. “We must reach a final deal that is both fair to employees, and at the same time, affordable for New Jersey’s commuters and taxpayers.”
NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri said over the past day the two sides came close to an agreement.
“The problem, or the challenge that currently exists is one that we cannot ignore,” he said. “There is no point in providing a compensation structure to a group of my colleagues which ultimately ends up bankrupting the agency.”If NJ Transit were to give the engineers union the complete increase package they want, the “Me Too” clause with more than a dozen other unions would be triggered, forcing the agency to pay their workers higher salaries while financially crushing the transit authority, officials said.
“If one union gets a better deal than the other, the one that did not get a better deal, it’s automatically entitled to that compensation,” Kolluri said. “That is basically where the dispute stands.”
According to Murphy, the original deal offered to the union would have provided the engineers “their hard-earned raises without blowing up NJ Transit’s budget” but it was ultimately rejected by the union members.
Murphy said NJ Transit is ready to continue negotiations whenever the union wants to meet, and both sides have been invited to reconvene by the National Mediation Board on Sunday.
But for now, the engineers are on strike.
A tentative agreement reached in April called for engineers to get a 4% annual pay raise, but union members overwhelmingly rejected the deal.At that time they were demanding salary hikes of 18% to 23 %, but the transit authority resisted the ask, citing budget constraints.
The engineers have been working without a contract since 2019.
About 350,000 commuters take NJ Transit trains daily. The agency’s strike contingency plan calls for increased bus service from four temporary park and ride locations, but officials said the plan will only accommodate about 20% of travelers and recommended that people work from home, if possible.
