Hundreds of thousands of New Jersey commuters may be caught up in the state’s first transit strike in more than 40 years as soon as Friday morning.
The engineers who drive New Jersey Transit’s commuter trains have threatened to walk out after midnight Thursday if the union that represents them cannot reach an agreement with the agency on a contract that has been under negotiation for many months.
The engineers have said they are seeking parity in pay with engineers at other commuter railroads in the area. The transit agency’s chief executive, Kris Kolluri, has repeatedly said that it cannot afford the pay increases the union is demanding.
The two sides met with the National Mediation Board in Washington on Monday in a last-ditch effort to resolve their differences. Mr. Kolluri said the discussion was “constructive” and that he looked forward to continuing negotiations in good faith.
In the meantime, New Jersey Transit has drawn up a contingency plan. But Mr. Kolluri said that the additional buses it would offer as a substitute in the event of a strike could handle only about 20 percent of the daily train riders.
The agency has asked commuters to make plans to work from home if their presence in the workplace is not essential. Mr. Kolluri has said a strike could last for weeks.
How likely is a strike?
Most threatened transit strikes, like the last one in New Jersey nine years ago, do not materialize.
But the tone of these negotiations has grown harsher as the strike deadline has neared.
Last week, Mr. Kolluri questioned the “mental health” of Thomas Haas, the general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, after the union’s members overwhelmingly rejected a previous agreement.
Mr. Kolluri and union officials shook hands on a deal that appeared to bridge the impasse more than a month ago. But the union engineers voted it down and sent their negotiator back to the bargaining table.
Mr. Kolluri has refused to increase New Jersey Transit’s offer, saying that any extra pay offered to the engineers would have to be paid to all 13 of the agency’s other unions.
“This is the deal that was offered, that he shook my hands on, that he negotiated, and now he has to live with his consequences,” Mr. Kolluri said.
Mark Wallace, the national president of the engineers’ union, said that Mr. Kolluri was not interested in reaching a deal. “He’s trying to vilify us with the citizens of New Jersey,” Mr. Wallace said.
What are the issues to be resolved?
In most labor negotiations, the two sides disagree on a number of work rules, such as schedules and staffing levels. But this dispute is now just about money.
Mr. Haas said last week that the union had agreed to 95 percent of New Jersey Transit’s demands.
“The only sticking point we have are wages,” he said. “Every other part of this contract is resolved.”
But the gap between the union’s pay demands and what the agency is offering is very wide.
Mr. Kolluri said the offer the union voted down in March would have raised the average annual pay of full-time engineers to $172,000 from $135,000. But Mr. Haas said those figures were inflated. The union, he said, would happily accept a contract that raised engineers’ annual pay to $173,000.
In essence, New Jersey Transit insists that the 450 engineers represented by the union accept the same contract terms that all of the agency’s other unions accepted. Just last week, the agency announced a contract deal with its biggest union, which represents 5,500 employees of its bus network.
But the engineers say they should be paid on a par with the drivers of trains at the region’s other commuter railroads, including the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad. They say those railroads pay their engineers about $10 an hour more than New Jersey Transit pays.
What will happen if there is a strike?
Most commuters do not remember the last transit strike in New Jersey, which happened in 1983 and lasted about three weeks. Another strike loomed in 2016 but was averted a day before it would have begun.
But the contingency plan New Jersey Transit has created is similar to the one used 42 years ago. It involves chartered buses running from four satellite lots around the state to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan or to stations of the PATH train in North Jersey, starting on May 19. There would be no chartered buses on the first day of the strike.
Each bus carries about 100 passengers, compared with as many as 1,000 on a full train, Mr. Kolluri said. The buses will accommodate only about 20 percent of the 70,000 commuters who take trains into the city, he said.
Some displaced commuters are likely to try to switch to existing bus routes operated by New Jersey Transit and private carriers. Others are likely to drive at least part of the way to the city, adding traffic to already congested roads, transportation experts said.
“If the strike does happen, even with a contingency plan in place, this is going to be incredibly disruptive to the region,” said Zoe Baldwin, vice president for state programs at the Regional Plan Association. “No matter what mode you’re on, you’re going to have a more difficult commute than usual.”
Patrick McGeehan is a Times reporter who covers the economy of New York City and its airports and other transportation hubs.
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