As NJ Transit rail crews got out to inspect trains and track to prepare for resuming commuter train travel May 20, a tentative agreement between the agency and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen hangs in the balance.
Neither side has said much about what took place during the three days of tense negotiations amid NJ Transit’s first strike in 42 years — or what is contained in the new deal that will now have to be voted on by the roughly 450 engineers.
“This is a very sensitive time. Nobody wants to upend a deal,” said Bill Dwyer, a professor in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.
Thomas Haas, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the union that represents NJ Transit's engineers, said in a statement the night the deal was reached that they were able to “show management ways to boost engineers’ wages that will help NJT with retention and recruitment, without causing any significant budget issue or requiring a fare increase.”
To get to get higher wages worked into the contract — which would make them more competitive with the New York commuter railroads Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road, as well as Amtrak — the union may have made concessions having to do with work rules. Work rules are provisions that can dictate how overtime is calculated or how engineers get compensated for traveling to work assignments.
“The deal itself reflects a series of concessions that came together by way of a work rule that will eventually end up paying for the fair wage that the union has asked for,” said Kris Kolluri, president and CEO of NJ Transit.
Source: northjersey.com
