Bargaining on a new contract between NJ Transit and the agency’s locomotive engineers has stalled, and union leaders say the dispute could require White House intervention and could even lead to a strike.
The impasse is over the union’s demand that NJ Transit increase the pay scale for its engineers to catch up with their counterparts at other passenger railroads in the region, said Jim Brown, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLE&T).
A lockout or strike on NJ Transit would be disruptive to the regional economy, snarling traffic into and out of New York City and inconveniencing some Philadelphia-area commuters who use the railroad’s Northeast Corridor service via Trenton. NJ Transit also runs daily trains between 30th Street Station and Atlantic City.
“We just want equal pay,” Brown said in an interview. “We’re not asking for more, but we certainly don’t want less.”
NJ Transit trains carried an average 178,904 passengers daily in 2020. By federal law, rail contracts don’t expire because of the importance of railroads to U.S. commerce.
NJ Transit locomotive engineers are paid 8% to 23% less than train operators with similar qualifications and responsibilities at Amtrak, Metro-North, the Long Island Rail Road and PATH, a bistate rapid-transit service, said James Louis, a national vice president of the BLE&T who oversees passenger rail locals in the northeast.
“We have made a fair and pattern-based contract offer that has been...
The Civil Court has ordered a beauty clinic and a doctor to pay a customer 20,000 baht in compensation after ruling that part of its advertising for acne scar treatment was false. In its ruling ye...