The New Jersey Transit locomotive engineers who went on strike Friday have complained that their counterparts at other railroads that serve New York City earn significantly more — at least $10 more per hour — and they want parity.
“We’re just looking for a wage that is closer to what the average of what every other passenger engineer in the United States makes,” said Tom Haas, general chairman of Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. The union says its members want parity with their counterparts who work for the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad.
Kris Kolluri, the chief executive of New Jersey Transit, contended that a tentative agreement that the union’s members rejected in a landslide would have raised their starting hourly wage to $49.82, from $39.78.
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, and could force the agency to raise fares by 17 percent or more.
But Mr. Haas said those figures were inflated. The union, he said, would happily accept a contract that raised engineers’ annual pay to $172,000.
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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