New Jersey Transit train engineers to go on strike, leaving some 350,000 commuters in the lurch

New Jersey Transit train engineers will go on strike early Friday leaving an estimated commuters in New Jersey and New York City to seek other means to reach their destinations or consider staying home The walkout comes after the latest round of negotiations on Thursday didn t produce an agreement It will be the state s first transit strike in more than years and comes a month after union members overwhelmingly rejected a labor agreement with management We presented them the last proposal they rejected it and walked away with two hours left on the clock explained Tom Haas general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen New Jersey Gov Phil Murphy commented during a news conference late Thursday that it was major to reach a final deal that is both fair to employees and at the same time affordable to New Jersey s commuters and taxpayers Again we cannot ignore the agency s fiscal realities Murphy stated NJ Transit the nation s third-largest transit system operates buses and rail in the state providing nearly million weekday trips including into New York City The walkout will halt all NJ Transit commuter trains which provide heavily used general transit routes between New York City s Penn Station on one side of the Hudson River and communities in northern New Jersey on the other as well as the Newark airport which has grappled with unrelated delays of its own just now The agency had informed contingency plans in latest days saying it planned to increase bus operation but warned riders that the buses would only add very limited limit to existing New York commuter bus routes in close proximity to rail stations and would not start running until Monday The agency also will contract with private carriers to operate bus system from key regional park-and-ride locations during weekday peak periods However the agency noted that the buses would not be able to handle close to the same number of passengers only about of current rail customers so it urged people who could work from home to do so if there was a strike Even the threat of it had already caused progress disruptions Amid the uncertainty the transit agency canceled train and bus amenity for Shakira concerts Thursday and Friday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey The parties had met Monday with a federal mediation board in Washington to discuss the matter and a mediator was present during Thursday s talks Wages have been the main sticking point of the negotiations between the agency and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen The union says its members earn an average salary of a year and says an agreement could be reached if agency CEO Kris Kolluri agrees to an average yearly salary of NJ Transit leadership though disputes the union s figures saying the engineers have average total earnings of annually with the highest earners exceeding Source