NJ: Contract that ended NJ Transit rail strike is ratified by union

A contract that ended a three-day rail strike last month was ratified by members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Tuesday afternoon.

The pact will not be voted on by NJ Transit’s board of directors at the June 11 meeting because it is not listed on the agenda. A vote will be held at the July 17 meeting.

The seven-year agreement, covering the years 2020-2027, passed with 398 voting in favor and 21 against. A total 419 members voted.

“I am pleased to announce the ratification of a new contract by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, representing a fair and fiscally responsible agreement for our locomotive engineers, NJ Transit, our customers, and the taxpayers of New Jersey,” Kris Kolluri, NJ Transit president & CEO, said in a statement.

The tentative deal was reached on May 18 after three days of negotiations in New Jersey and with the National Mediation Board in Washington, D.C., after the union called a strike on May 16, halting commuter trains.

“All along we’ve said we didn’t want to be the highest paid engineers, we only wanted equal pay for equal work,” said Tom Haas, the union’s general chairman at the commuter railroad. “This agreement brings us close to what our peers make for doing the same type of work with the same levels of experience and training.”

The 450 eligible union members voted electronically on the contract. In April, union members rejected a tentative contract that was announced in March, but failed to be ratified.

That started a 30-day countdown toward May 16, when the union became free to strike under the Railway Labor Act.

Salaries were the major point of disagreement as NJ Transit officials rejected a union counter offer on May 5 and ended negotiations the night of May 15.

“From the outset, Governor (Phil) Murphy and I were clear that any agreement must balance fair compensation with budgetary discipline — and this contract delivers on both,“ Kolluri said, echoing comments made by both sides when a deal was reached last month.

While details of the contract have not been released, all the issue that divided the sides were salary related.

“This agreement gives us the pay raises we needed, but also was done without a major hit to NJT’s budget and should not require a fare hike for passengers,” Haas said.

Pay parity with other passenger railroad engineers was a big issue that was the easiest to resolve.

The contract contained a “significant pay raise for engineers” who were, until now, the lowest paid engineers working for a major commuter railroad in the United States, according to a union statement.

NJ Transit engineers sought parity with locomotive engineers working for Amtrak, Metro North, Long Island RailRoad and PATH. Union officials said those engineers earn $10 an hour more than NJ Transit engineers.

In addition to a pay increase that will raise hourly wages to over $50 per hour, locomotive engineers will also receive retroactive wages and a signing bonus, the union said.

The other, more difficult issue, concerned the percentage salary increase. The goal was to meet engineers’ demands without triggering similar “me too” requests from other unions.

During five years of negotiations union members rejected NJ Transit’s pattern bargaining offer that other rail unions accepted, contending the training, specialized knowledge and responsibility of engineers was worth a higher rate.

“We adhered to the established bargaining pattern and, through constructive negotiations, secured meaningful concessions that enabled us to fund the wage increases sought by (union) members without exceeding our current budget,” Kolluri said.

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