May 18 (UPI) — Negotiators from the state of New Jersey and the union representing hundreds of locomotive engineers announced they reached a tentative agreement on Sunday, ending the first statewide transit strike in four decades.
Terms of the agreement were not made public, but the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union had sought a pay raise for its 450 members. BLET said in a statement that the agreement will be sent to its members and its specifics will be publicized after they’ve had a chance to review it.
“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,” said Tom Haas, BLET’s general chairman at NJ Transit.
The union went on strike Friday at 12:01 a.m. after negotiations abruptly ended hours earlier. An agreement to prevent a strike had been reached by the union and NJ Transit in late March but members voted 87% against it in mid-April.
It was the first statewide transit strike in 42 years.
The office of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy confirmed in a statement that rail transit will resume in the state, with regular weekday train service to start Tuesday, as inspections and other maintenance work following the work stoppage will take about 24 hours to complete.
“This agreement reflects the commitment of both the BLET and NJ Transit to remain at the table engaging in productive conversations, and I commend them both,” Murphy said. “Most importantly, it ensures the resumption of rail service for the 100,000 people who depend on our rail system on a daily basis.”
The tentative agreement must next be ratified by BLET members and approved by the NJ Transit Board of Directors.
The main issue that held up negotiators was pay. BLET had said that its members were the lowest paid of all locomotive engineers working for a major commuter railroad in the nation and that it was seeking a comparable wage for its 450 members.
Ahead of the strike, NJ Transit estimated that more than 350,000 daily riders would be negatively affected by the work stoppage.
The Partnership for New York City has estimated that every hour commuters are delayed getting to work due to NJ Transit rail being out of service costs New York City employers nearly $6 million.