NEWARK, N.J.—With a May 16 strike deadline looming at one of the nation’s most heavily used commuter rail systems, bargainers for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen/ Teamsters and New Jersey Transit engaged in last-ditch talks to avoid a strike and a shutdown.
But the ultimate decision could be taken out of the 450 workers’ hands. Under the 100-year-old Railway Labor Act, which governs worker-boss relations on railroads and airlines, the federal government—meaning the GOP Donald Trump White House—can step in to stop “self-help” via a worker strike or a management lockout, before it starts.
And Trump would appoint a three-person arbitration board to take testimony and proposals from both sides during a “cooling-off” period of at least two months, write a new pact, and send it to Congress.
The union went the extra mile, getting a special session with a federal mediator and the train system’s bosses, to try to keep trains running all through northern and central New Jersey and border areas of New York. The two sides—management across the street from the union—waged dueling press conferences on May 7.
“After more than five years of trying to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, New Jersey Transit’s continued refusal to bargain in good faith has brought us all to this position,” said the union local’s general chairman, Tom Haas, who is also its chief negotiator.
“We have sought nothing more than equal pay for equal work only to be continuously rebuffed by New Jersey Transit.” The big commuter rail system employs the engineers. They’ve been working under the frozen terms of their present contract, which expired Dec. 31, 2019.
Since then, there have been three proposed contracts from management. As law requires for rail unions, the workers rejected each. The last rejection, in March, saw an 87% “no” vote.
Tried again to bargain
The two sides tried again to bargain in the days between the press conferences and the deadline. The engineers had voted just over a year ago to authorize their leaders to call a strike if necessary, said BLE&T/Teamsters National President Mark Wallace, who joined Haas at the press conference.
“We’re going to follow the lead of our membership,” said Wallace. “Our members overwhelmingly voted over a year ago to authorize a strike. And our members overwhelmingly voted not to ratify an agreement that was put out” by management.
“These employees have worked for five years without a pay raise. They’ve worked through covid (the coronavirus), they’ve worked through one of the most inflationary periods in our history, without a pay raise. Reasonable people would vote for an agreement that was fair, and we had 87% of our people that turned that agreement down.”
Pay and respect are the top issues, and they’re intertwined. The ”equal pay for equal work” demand refers to the hourly pay rates for New Jersey Transit locomotive engineers, compared to the rates for their colleagues on other area rail lines in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia, plus Amtrak.
Figures the union distributed show starting pay for a New Jersey Transit locomotive engineer is $39.78 per hour, and that’s stayed frozen since 2019.
The next-lowest starting pay was at Philadelphia’s commuter rail system, SEPTA, of $42.17/hour. Amtrak, Metro-North, the Port Authority Trans-Hudson and the Long Island Rail Road had starting hourly pay ranging from $49.92 to $57.20.
Haas also said New Jersey Transit bosses alleged the union’s pay demands would cost the system $1.3 billion and force fare hikes or an increase in area transit taxes. He said the union’s fare demand would cost far less.
He added New Jersey Transit would spend $4 million a day to run trains over 20% of its system, leaving the rest of its hundreds of thousands of commuters to fend for themselves.
Besides the press conference, the union also took its case to cable TV. Its ad adds a dig at New Jersey Transit’s fancy new skyscraper headquarters in downtown Newark. “NJT has millions for pet projects and penthouse views. Isn’t it time it paid train crews?” the ad asks.
“The 450 BLET engineers at NJ Transit are not asking for the moon, they’re asking for dignity,” said Railroad Workers United, the rank-and-file organization that unites members of all 14 rail crafts into one organization—and which agitates for joint bargaining and, eventually public ownership of both freight and commuter rail lines.
“Six years without a raise while moving millions safely is not just neglect, it’s contempt. These are the lowest-paid passenger engineers in the country, and yet they’ve been met with delay, deflection, and political theater. As the May 16 strike deadline nears, let’s be clear: If there’s disruption, it won’t be caused by the workers, it’ll be caused by a system that values obedience over fairness and delay over justice.”
As the engineers and the bosses remained at odds, the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents 5500 other New Jersey Transit workers, settled on a tentative agreement Details of that pact were unavailable pending ratification, but both sides described the talks as amicable.
“Reaching a tentative agreement reflects a commitment to support the hard-working men and women in the Amalgamated Transit Union and the communities we serve,” said ATU state chair and lead bargainer Orlando Riley. “ We look forward to continuing our relationship with NJ TRANSIT as we continue to provide reliable bus service to the public and improve the quality of life for our members.”
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
