New Jersey Transit is teetering on the edge of a major disruption as its locomotive engineers threaten to walk off the job as early as Friday, putting tens of thousands of riders in limbo.
Contract negotiations between NJ Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen have stalled over wage disputes. If talks collapse, this could mark the agency’s first rail strike in more than four decades. NJ Transit, which facilitates over 925,000 weekday trips, has already begun urging passengers to work from home in anticipation of possible chaos.
That guidance runs counter to the current corporate climate in New York City, where many companies have reinstated full in-office schedules. Earlier this year, JPMorgan Chase & Co mandated five days a week in-office. Other major employers like Citigroup Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and BlackRock Inc. have adopted similar post-pandemic policies.
For workers in sectors where remote work isn’t an option—such as healthcare and education—the strike could mean scrambling to find alternative ways to get to work. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan has already issued an alert to its patients, advising them to allow for delays, consider new routes, or reschedule appointments due to the looming threat of service interruptions.
Governor Phil Murphy acknowledged the situation could escalate and that he may take decisive steps if needed. “All options are on the table,” he said. “I’m still hoping that we find some resolution here, but we are preparing for the worst.”
Surrounding transit agencies are already gearing up for the fallout. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is deploying support staff to key PATH stations—including Newark Penn Station, Hoboken, and the World Trade Center—to assist with the influx of stranded riders. Amtrak trains will also be available for passengers traveling to Newark.
Private operator Boxcar announced it would nearly triple its bus service capacity, preparing to accommodate as many as 6,000 commuters during the potential stoppage.
Meanwhile, Metro-North Railroad, which employs NJ Transit engineers under contract, said it will accept tickets from the Port Jervis and Pascack Valley lines on alternate routes and will add cars to its Hudson Line to help absorb the increased volume.
Roadways may see severe congestion as well, particularly at major chokepoints like the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, as more commuters resort to driving.
Transit advocates warn that a strike could do long-term damage to NJ Transit’s reputation, which has already been bruised by chronic delays and aging infrastructure. On top of that, fares are scheduled to increase by 3% annually. “This is a very high-stakes situation,” said Zoe Baldwin, the New Jersey director for the Regional Plan Association. “Riders were already seeing how stressed the system was before this. I’m definitely concerned that this strike will turn people away on a longer-term basis.”
The engineers have not received a raise since 2019 and are pushing for wages that align with those earned by peers at other major rail systems. NJ Transit, however, has pushed back, arguing that the financial strain of meeting those demands could have consequences. “I’m not being stingy,” said NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri in an April press briefing. He warned that accommodating the union’s proposal could require fare hikes, new business taxes, or service cuts.
According to NJ Transit, the current average salary for a locomotive engineer is $135,000, a figure that would climb to around $173,000 under the rejected proposal. The union maintains that NJ Transit has the resources to meet these pay levels without burdening passengers.
Back in 2016, a similar crisis was averted at the last minute. The most recent strike, however, took place in 1983 and lasted nearly a month. This time, tensions are running higher, with both sides locked in an increasingly public clash.
BLET National President Mark Wallace and General Chairman Tom Haas have exchanged sharp words with Kolluri, with both parties presenting conflicting salary data to back their claims.
The tentative agreement presented by the agency in April was shot down by union members, and the counterproposal was quickly rejected. Negotiators from both camps were summoned to Washington, DC, for talks overseen by the National Mediation Board. Kolluri described the sessions as “constructive,” though no deal has been finalized.
Kolluri said that on Wednesday, negotiators met for more than six hours and were scheduled to resume talks Thursday morning. Meanwhile, union members gathered in protest outside NJ Transit’s headquarters ahead of a board meeting, donning red shirts emblazoned with “United We Bargain, Divided We Beg.”
The duration of any strike remains uncertain—it could be brief or prolonged—but much may depend on how the public responds. Eric Blanc, a labor studies professor at Rutgers University, explained, “Strikes are labor’s most powerful weapon. The major goal is to create enough of a crisis that the public will put pressure on city managers to meet workers’ demands. But the danger is that that same crisis that they’re creating can turn them against the union. It’s part of the reason why transit union strikes are so rare.”
{Matzav.com}