New Jersey transit strikes that can have an impact on 350,000 passengers, officials said

A number of 350,000 commuter new jersey Can immediately find themselves fighting over other ways to start working if the contract disagreement between New Jersey Transit and the Union of the Engineer is not resolved, according to the transit official.

Brotherhood of locomotive engineers and coaches (BLET) has threatened to attack on Friday, May 16 except NJ Transit and Union can approve new contract terms and conditions for workers who drive trains. If no agreement is reached, all commuter trains are transit new jersey – and MTA Metro-North West of Hudson Service – Will stop running.

“We have been looking for nothing more than the same wage for the same job, just to continue to be rejected by New Jersey Transit,” said Chairman General Blet Tom Haas during a press conference on May 9. “The New Jersey transit engineer wants to keep the train move but the simple fact is that the train does not walk without engineers.”

National President Blet Mark Wallace said during the press conference that it had been five years since the train engineer who worked for NJ Transit had received a salary increase. He also said that many engineers might look for work in Amtrak or Long Island Railroad if their contract requirements were not met.

“People who make sense will choose a fair agreement,” Wallace said.

Haas said during the press conference that the engineer who worked for NJ transit received an average salary of $ 113,000 per year. If the CEO of New Jersey Transit Kris Kolluri approves the average salary of $ 170,000 per year for engineers operators, then “we get an agreement,” Haas said.

“NJ transit locomotive engineers already have a total income of $ 135,000 per year, with the highest recipient exceeding $ 200,000,” according to A statement On the New Jersey transit website about negotiations with BLET.

During the press conference separately on the same day, Kolluri responded to the union argument, said Haas previously agreed with the wage increase to $ 49.82 per hour but later demanded a higher wage because he thought there was a “better pot at the end of the rainbow.”

“I can’t continue to give money to the left and right to solve the problem. Everything goes down, who will pay for this? Money does not grow on a tree,” Kolluri said.

ABC news requests sent to NJ Transit and The Blet to comment on the statements of Wallace, Haas and Kolluri who approved the salary increase did not receive responses.

Representatives of New Jersey Transit and Blet met Monday with the National Mediation Council in Washington, DC to continue negotiations.

“We want to thank the National Mediation Council (NMB) for holding today’s meeting,” NJ Transit said in A statement On their website after a meeting. “We found this discussion constructive and hoped to continue negotiations with good faith. To respect the joint negotiations, we will not share additional details in public at this time.”

There was no statement of Blet Public after the National Mediation Council meeting, also Blet did not immediately respond to ABC’s comments requests to comment.

Nj transit states that if they are was to accept blet’s terms, it would cost both them and new jersey taxpayers $ 1,363 billion between July 2025 and June 2030 would be $ 4 million per day, nj transit claim.

The NJ Transit commuter has been beaten with a 15% tariff increase on July 1, 2024, with an increase in the 3% additional system scheduled to take effect July 1 this year and every year the following year. Nj transit said That the increase is needed to cover the budget deficit which is partly caused by a decline in the Pandemic era in passengers, as well as other costs, including inflation.

If the strike starts on May 16, NJ transit said This is “very encouraging everyone who can work from home to do it and limit traveling to the NJ transit system only for important purposes.”

NJ transit officials also said that they had develop an emergency plan That includes adding “a very limited capacity for the New York commuter bus route near the train station and contracting with private operators to operate bus services” for passengers who usually depend on the train.

Even with expanded bus services, NJ Transit said that “estimates that he can only carry around 20% of the current train customers” because the bus system does not have the capacity to replace the commuter train service.

Xuan Sharon Di, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University, told ABC News that the potential transit strike would be a “disaster” for traffic in Manhattan due to increased buses and car traffic to cities from commuter that could not take trains. There will also be additional penalties from passengers to Manhattan who have to pay new -this is enforced Traffic jam price.

“New Jersey Transit is the backbone for people who live in New Jersey to move. This is actually surprising for me,” said at ABC News about the prospect of strikes.

Steven Chien, professor of civil engineering and environmental at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, said that many of his colleagues used NJ transit to travel and that strikes would “paralyze the vital transportation arteries in our region.”