New Jersey Transit train engineers go on strike, leaving some 350,000 passengers

Engineers of the New Jersey Transit train went on strike on Friday, leaving the estimated 350,000 passengers in New Jersey and New York City to search for other means to consider reaching their destinations or considering being at home. The walkout comes after the latest round of talks on Thursday. This is the state’s first transit strike over 40 years and comes a month after the union members rejected a labor agreement with the management. “We presented them the final proposal; they dismissed it and left for two hours on the clock,” said Tom Haas, General Chairman of Locomotive engineers and trainers, Brotherhood. NJ Transit CEO Chris Kolluri described the situation as “break in conversations”. During a joint news conference with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, he hoped to withdraw these conversations late Thursday night. “If they are ready to meet tonight, I will meet them again tonight. If they want to meet tomorrow morning, I will do it again. Because I think it is an adjacently practical problem. The question is whether they have a desire to come to the solution.” Murphy said that “it was important to reach a final deal that is appropriate for employees and at the same time cheap for New Jersey travelers and taxpayers.” “Then, we cannot ignore the fiscal realities of the agency,” Murphy said. According to the union, the announcement came after a 15-hour non-stop contract negotiations. The picket lines are expected to start at 4 am on Friday. NJ Transit – The third largest transit system in the country – operates buses and rails in the state, providing about 1 million working days including New York City. Walkout prevents all NJ transit commuter trains, which provides heavy -used public transit routes to the Neepark Airport along with heavy -used public transit routes between the Pen Station in New York City and on the other side in North New Jersey, which are recently struggling with their own unrelated delays. The agency had announced contingency plans in recent times, stating that it had planned to increase bus service, but warned the riders that buses would only add “very limited” capacities for the New York commutor bus routes that are close to railway stations and will not start running until Monday. The agency will also contract with a private carrier to operate bus service from major regional park-and-ride locations during the working summit period. However, the agency stated that buses would not be able to handle close to the same number of passengers – only 20 percent of the current railway customers – so it urges people who can work from home, if there was a strike. Even its danger had already created a disruption in the journey. Amid uncertainty, the transit agency canceled the train and bus service for Shakira concert on Thursday and Friday at the Metlife Stadium in New Jersey. The parties met with a federal arbitration board in Washington to discuss the matter on Monday, and a mediator was present during Thursday’s talks. Kolluri said on Thursday night that the arbitration board has suggested to resume on Sunday morning meeting. The wage has been the main sticky point of the interaction between the agency and the brotherhood of the locomotive engineers and the trainers who want their members to earn wages as compared to other passenger railways in the region. The Sangh says that its members earns an average salary of $ 113,000 per year and say an agreement can be reached if the agency CEO Chris Kolluri agrees with an average annual salary of $ 170,000. The NJ Transit leadership, however, disputes the union figures, stating that the average total income of engineers is $ 135,000 annually, with the highest grossing of the highest -grossing $ 200,000. Kollauri and Murphy said on Thursday night that the problem is not so much whether the two sides may agree to increase wages, but can they do so under conditions that will then not trigger other unions to demand equal increase and an economically ineffective situation for NJ transit. The Congress has the power to stop and block the strike and force the Sangh to forces the Sangh to accept a deal, but the MPs have not shown a desire to do so that they had done this time to stop the national goods rail strike in 2022. The Sangh has seen stable attraction in its rank in NJ Transit as its more members leave to take better paid jobs in other railways. The number of NJ transit engineers has shrunk several months ago, which has increased to about 450 today.