NJ Transit rail strike set to end after tentative deal reached, service to resume this week
The recent strike involving New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) is set to end after a tentative agreement was reached, meaning service will be restored for over 350,000 passengers.
The strike, which was the first NJ Transit strike in over 40 years, began after midnight on Friday morning. It majorly disrupted tens of thousands of Garden State commuters working in New York City.
The striking rail engineers were reportedly able to negotiate wage increases. In a statement, NJ Transit said its trains will begin operating again on Tuesday.
"NJ Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen (BLET) have announced a tentative agreement," NJ Transit said.
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"As a result, NJ Transit train service will resume on Tuesday, May 20, as it takes approximately 24 hours to inspect and prepare tracks, rail cars and other infrastructure before returning to full scheduled service," the statement added.
The agency also said it "will continue to deploy customer ambassadors at stations and Park & Ride locations to assist customers as train service restarts."
The union confirmed the end of the strike in a statement on Sunday,
"Terms of the agreement will be sent to the union’s 450 members who work as locomotive engineers or are trainees at the passenger railroad for their consideration," BLET's statement read. "Contract language and dollar figures will be announced to the public later after BLET members have an opportunity to review. It was the first strike at NJ Transit in 42 years."
BLET’s General Chairman at NJ Transit Tom Hass said that his union was "able to show management ways to boost engineers’ wages that will help NJT with retention and recruitment, without causing any significant budget issue or requiring a fare increase."
"While I won’t get into the exact details of the deal reached, I will say that the only real issue was wages and we were able to reach an agreement that boosts hourly pay beyond the proposal rejected by our members last month and beyond where we were when NJ Transit’s managers walked away from the table Thursday evening," Haas said.
The union also said that NJ Transit’s locomotive engineers "were the lowest paid locomotive engineers working for a major commuter railroad in the nation," despite the high cost of living in New Jersey and New York.
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"NJ Transit’s engineers have not had a new raise in the past five years, despite a significant rise in inflation," the statement added.