UNION COUNTY, NJ — Get ready for a complete stoppage of NJ Transit train service.
That was the message from NJ Transit President and Chief Executive Officer Kris Kolluri at a press conference on Wednesday, April 30, in the agency’s emergency operations center, where he warned commuters that the union representing the people who drive the trains is getting ready to strike.
“I’m not looking for a strike,” Kolluri said. “We want a deal that is fair and responsible.”
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers membership voted down a tentative agreement reached between NJ Transit and the BLET leadership. BLET is calling for a strike as early as Friday, May 16, at 12:01 a.m.
The strike would result in the complete suspension of NJ Transit rail service plus Metro-North Railroad west of Hudson service.
NJ Transit said the deal approved by BLET leadership would have raised the average locomotive engineer annual salary from $135,000 a year to $172,000 a year. The union is asking for a raise that would bring the annual salary to $190,000, Kolluri said.
Thomas Haas, general chairman of the BLET, said NJ Transit’s figures on what engineers make was misleading.
“They are using numbers from when there was a severe engineer shortage and engineers were making a significant amount of overtime,” Haas said. “If you look at 2024, less than a quarter of workers made their average wage.”
Haas said the base pay for an engineer is $89,000 and there are no increases for longevity.
“We are absolutely dependent on overtime to make anything close to a living wage for this area,” Haas said.
Haas, who said his union has 450 members, also disputed a remark by Kolluri that the engineers live and work in New Jersey but want to make New York wages.
“A large number of engineers live in New York, we work in New York,” he said, adding, “Our largest station is in New York.”
It would behove NJ Transit to raise engineers wages to avoid losing them, after spending $250,000 and 20 months training them, Haas said.
“They can step across the platform and make $10 more an hour” at Amtrak, he said.
The agreement that was voted down by union members would have increased the base salary by $25,000 a year, Haas said.
“That still leaves NJ Transit far back from where other railroads are,” Haas said.
The two sides are in agreement on every other issue except salary.
“We are still working on a counter proposal,” Haas said. “I can’t give a specific number but something that closes that gap in wages with other railroads, which is upwards of 20 percent.”
In advance of a stoppage, NJ Transit has developed a contingency plan that would accommodate an extremely limited number of rail customers. NJ Transit strongly encourages all those who can work from home to do so and limit traveling on the NJ Transit system to essential purposes only.
Kolluri said that NJ Transit is in good fiscal shape and in the process of providing long-term upgrades to the system while other transit systems – and he cited the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and the Chicago Transit Authority – are in serious fiscal trouble.
“New Jersey for the first time in 45 years, thanks to Gov. Phil Murphy and the legislature, they ensured we had the resources to not disrupt service for our residents,” Kolluri said.
NJ Transit is the nation’s largest statewide public transportation system with more than 11,000 employees providing more than 944,000 weekday trips on over 250 bus routes, three light rail lines, 12 commuter rail lines and through the agency’s Access Link paraTransit service.
The engineers are the only ones who would go out on strike and Kolluri said he will not tolerate job actions by employees sympathetic to the engineers.
NJ Transit maintains that the raise being requested by engineers would require a 17% fare increase and a 27% increase in the Corporate Transit Fee and/or a drastic reduction in service. The ripple effect from giving out a raise of this size would be tremendous, Kolluri said, adding that other unions within NJ Transit and throughout the country are watching and will want similar raises.
Also factors, Kolluri said, were the growing possibility of a recession and that tariffs are likely to impact expenses.
Kolluri said the union is hell bent on a strike and they intend to take a 2 by 4 to the system, which is finally on good fiscal footing.
“That deal was negotiated in good faith,” Kolluri said. “It was fair and fiscally responsible.”
Kolluri said that his top priority is to get back to the negotiating table.
“I’m going to work every day between now and May 16 to try and get a deal,” said Kolluri, who has only been with the agency since Jan. 16.
In response to a question, Kolluri said people might not want to buy monthly passes for May but should instead buy day to day.
“We are not contemplating refunding tickets,” he said.
Photo by Joe Ungaro