The National Mediation Board has called representatives for NJ Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers to a meeting Monday in Washington, D.C., as New Jersey sits on the brink of its first major rail strike in four decades.
The move suggests the board is trying to push the two sides to reach an agreement before hundreds of thousands of riders are impacted by a strike for the first time since 1983.
NJ Transit President & CEO Kris Kolluri welcomed the news.
“I welcome the National Mediation Board’s invitation to resume mediation in Washington on Monday, May 12,” he said. “I have always said we should avoid a strike and not disrupt the lives of 350,000 riders.”
The strike, slated to be announced next Friday, became more likely this week, when talks between NJ Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers broke down.
“New Jersey Transit had rejected our last offer and they walked away from the table,” said Tom Haas, the union’s chairman.
Haas said the railroad has overstated the amount paid to its engineers. NJ Transit insists the average pay is $135,000; the union has said it’s closer to $105,000.
But NJ Transit’s leadership said the union appears to have moved the goalposts.
“I gave them what they wanted,” Kolluri said Thursday at a state senate budget hearing in Trenton. “It sounds like they don’t want it anymore.”
Kolluri says the union had asked for parity with Long Island Railroad engineers at $49/per hour average pay, and that’s what they were offered. But the union says competing railroads actually pay significantly more than that.
The stalemate over wages threatens to leave 350,000 riders in the lurch, despite contingency plans that promise shuttle buses from key hubs like Secaucus Junction and the PNC Arts Center.
“They’re not asking for anything that’s absurd,” said Nancy Visser, a daily commuter from Warwick. “Just decent pay and decent benefits.”
With the threat of an engineer strike looming, NJ Transit releases their contingency plan for commuters. NBC 4’s Pat Battle reports from Maplewood, NJ.
If a strike happens, it would likely be called at the end of the “deadline day” on May 16. That would impact service starting on Monday, May 19.
The last strike at NJ Transit was in 1983. It lasted about a month.
Bruce Cantin, who takes the train from Fairlawn, pondered uncomfortably the impact of a walkout.
“I certainly hope not for everybody’s sake,” he said.
By Andrew Siff and NBC New York Staff , www.nbcnewyork.com , post ,
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2025-05-09 09:04:00 , NBC New York , Engineers called to DC mediation talk – NBC New York