NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) — Talks aimed at settling a strike between train engineers and New Jersey’s huge commuter railroad will pick up on Saturday and continue Sunday, New Jersey Transit CEO Kris Kolluri said.
The locomotive engineers’ strike began Friday at the rail system with 350,000 daily riders and left commuters either working from home or searching for other ways to travel across the state or over the Hudson River to New York City.
Kolluri spoke Saturday at Newark’s Broad Street Station, saying the agency is preparing for the workweek commute by “surging” buses to help commuters at train stations. But he cautioned that the buses can’t handle the entire volume of the commuter rail system.
Kolluri said he and Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen President Mark Wallace spoke and agreed to meet Saturday. It had been uncertain whether the two sides would meet ahead of a National Mediation Board meeting already set for Sunday.
“We’re going to meet the union today. We’re going to meet them tomorrow, with this goal of getting to a deal so we can get them back to work, get our customers the reliable service they need,” Kolluri said.
A message seeking comment Saturday was left with the union.
The walkout comes after the latest round of negotiations on Thursday didn’t produce an agreement. It is the state’s first transit strike in more than 40 years and comes a month after union members overwhelmingly rejected a labor agreement with management.
Wallace walked the picket line Friday outside New York City’s Penn Station, and said the engineers are committed to staying on strike until they get a fair deal. Union members were nearly unanimous in authorizing a strike last summer, and 87% of them rejected the latest agreement.
Wallace said NJ Transit needs to pay engineers a wage that’s comparable to Amtrak and Long Island Railroad because engineers are leaving for jobs on those other railroads for better pay,
The union has seen steady attrition in its ranks at NJ Transit as more members leave to take better-paying jobs at other railroads. The number of NJ Transit engineers has shrunk from 500 several months ago to about 400. The engineers are responsible for operating trains, ensuring safe and smooth transport between stations.
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New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday that it is important to “reach a final deal that is both fair to employees and at the same time affordable to New Jersey’s commuters and taxpayers.”
NJ Transit is the nation’s third-largest transit system and operates buses and rail in the state, providing nearly 1 million weekday trips, including into New York City. The walkout halts all NJ Transit commuter trains, which provide heavily used public transit routes between Penn Station on one side of the Hudson River and communities in northern New Jersey on the other, as well as the Newark airport, which has grappled with unrelated delays of its own recently.