On May 12, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union announced a strike to begin this Friday, May 16 at 12:01 a.m. The workers have walked off the job, threatening the shutdown of the rail network after NJ Transit and the union failed to reach a contract agreement.
More than 100,000 people rely on the NJ Transit rail daily for their travels. With the possibility of a strike in the air, NJ Transit and The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers were under extreme pressure to form a new contract with reasonable negotiations before the deadline of Friday so commuters can resume traveling on trains without the necessity of taking other transportation. But the contract dispute wasn’t settled, and the workers proceeded with their plans of rebellion.
According to Rutgers, the contract’s terms discussions have been going on since April, and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers rejected the first proposal, furthering their talks. The union’s main goal was to increase the wages of the engineers working for NJ Transit trains, as the members believe they were paid below average compared to other commuter railroads nearby. Bill Dwyer, a negotiation expert working with both sides, stated that the fourteen other unions that have employees working with NJ Transit have accepted “modest” wage increases.
“I think that it is a good issue for the union to be worried about,” Remley Brumby (’28), a ninth grader who takes NJ Transit often, said. “However, I think that there are much better ways to handle the situation rather than going on strikes, which affect so many people.”
According to The New York Times, the union’s engineers’ annual salary is, on average, $113,000, which is approximately $10 lower per hour than those of the employees working on other railroads. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers has stated that if their engineers’ salary is raised to $172,000, they’d immediately accept the contract terms. But the CEO of NJ Transit, Kris Kolluri, insists the agency does not have the money to meet the union’s demands.
Last year, fares were increased by 15%, the first increase in transportation costs in nearly a decade. This was all due to the pandemic’s drop-offs in riders, according to Rutgers, and the company’s budget for this year now greatly depends on the funds received from the federal government. With the insistence on the increase in salary wages from the workers on strike, there is a much higher chance for all their funding to deplete faster if they want to settle this dispute before it becomes worse.
It has been almost 40 years since the last successful walkout from engineers working for the NJ Transit trains, and this time, NJ Transit has planned an emergency backup plan for train passengers. As claimed by New York Post, the company has sent out an additional set of buses to assist the train commuters with their daily travels.
Unfortunately, despite these measures, the plan still lacks efficiency. The proposition will only be able to accommodate approximately 20% of daily train riders compared to its daily average. A bus only offers enough space for up to 100 passengers, and a train, on the other hand, offers enough space for up to 1,000 passengers.
As for now, NJ Transit has asked daily commuters to work from home if possible to help avoid any complications with the current strike. They are also offering other methods of transportation such as light rail lines, which are electric-powered trains with less capacity but with the ability to operate in mixed traffic conditions, all of which are powered by other unions.
As the strike continues, the strength of the public’s anger intensifies. NJ Transit and the union are forced to fulfill a deal favorable to both sides as the tension rises. With no end date in sight, the course the strikes will take in the next few days will determine not only the reliability of the state’s transportation, but also the paths hundreds of commuters will have to take daily. Everyone must navigate through this disruption, be it waiting for resolutions on the rails or at the negotiations.
