The strike remains unaccessible to hundreds of thousands of commuters in New Jersey and New York without access to the railroad.
New Jersey commuter railroad engineers have failed to realize negotiations for higher wages, leaving the train idle for commuters with the third largest transport system in the United States for the first time in more than 40 years.
The strike began on Friday, with locomotive engineers and train brothers suspended consultations late Thursday after a 15-hour negotiation session on behalf of 450 NJ Transit Engineers who promote the agency’s commuting trains and agency management.
The labor conflict came weeks after negotiators agreed to a potential deal in March, but union members overwhelmingly voted to reject it.
NJ Transit says it cannot afford the salary that engineers are looking for. Because 14 other unions negotiating separate labor contracts with agents demand the same, higher wage rates for their members.
The union pushed back the complaints, saying, “NJT claims they don’t have the money to pay engineers according to industry standards, but in some way they found $5 billion for a new, unnecessary headquarters.”
New Jersey Transit opened its new headquarters earlier this year.
The union says it simply aims to raise the salary of engineers on other commuter railroads in the area.
“They (railroad engineers) have been doing it for six years without a salary increase and have been seeking a new contract since October 2019,” the union said in a statement.
According to NJ Transit, engineers currently earn an average of $135,000, with their management offering deals that would average $172,000. However, the union has challenged these figures, saying the current average salary is actually $113,000.
The parties exchanged accusations of bad faith negotiations.
A strike means hundreds of thousands of daily passengers in New Jersey and New York are not serving. NJ Transit said its rail system began closing at 12:01am on Friday.
At a press conference, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and New Jersey Transit CEO Chris Kolli said that the press association had suspended but that their management was willing to resume negotiations at any time.
“We have to reach a final deal that is fair to our employees and is affordable,” Democrat Murphy told reporters. “Let’s go back to the table and seal the deal.”
Murphy and Kolli said the U.S. National Commission on Mediation reached out to both sides to suggest that the parties reopen on Sunday morning or if they wished.
The union’s statement does not say when the speech will resume. The protests began at several locations throughout the rail system, including New York State headquarters in New York City and the Atlantic City Railroad Terminal.
The governor and NJ Transit CEO also outlined a contingency plan to deal with work halts, the first transit strike to hit New Jersey since the three-week strike in 1983.
Workers urged them to stay home.
The looming strike was urging trains and buses to MetLife Stadium for last night and tonight’s Pop Star Shakira concert.
In its advisory, New Jersey Transit encouraged people to work from home from Friday if possible.
The agency said it would increase bus services for existing lines and charter private buses to operate from several satellite lots in the event of a rail strike, but warned that buses can only handle about 20% of railway customers.
Kolluri said last week that the union “plays chicken games in the lives of 350,000 riders.”
“We don’t want anything other than equal pay for equal work, but we’re only continually rejected by New Jersey’s transportation,” Tom Haas, the union’s general chairman, said earlier this week.