With one week remaining until NJ Transit engineers are set to go on strike, neither its union nor NJ Transit leadership sounded particularly optimistic on Friday.
“There is no point in making a deal that will eventually lead to the bankruptcy of this organization,” said Kris Kolluri, NJ Transit president and CEO, speaking at a Newark news conference. “That is what these folks are seeking.”
Mark Wallace, national president for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, held his own press event. “Four hundred and fifty members called bull … on what they were offered,” he said.
The engineers union and NJ Transit have been invited to Washington on Monday to meet with the National Mediation Board to try and reach an 11th-hour agreement and avoid the job action.
The engineers, who have not gone on strike since a month-long stoppage in 1983, said they agree with management on about 95% of the language needed to get a deal completed.
“We put something on the table that we feel is fiscally responsible and fair to New Jersey Transit’s engineers,” said Tom Haas, general chairman for the union. “It would’ve brought us up [in base wage] to around $120,000, which would be comparable to what most every other passenger railroad engineer in the United States is earning.”
Without a deal, the engineers have said they will go on strike beginning Friday, May 16.
