Strike soon? NJ Transit says union demanding $225,000 a year wages

💲NJ Transit CEO said union's offer was their worst yet

💲Claims it would require a 34% fare hike to cover the cost

💲BLET's president disputes NJ Transit's figures

NJ Transit and its engineers appear to be one step closer to a strike on May 16 as CEO Kris Kolluri says the engineers' union is asking for an even higher pay raise.

Kolluri said that he met with the leadership of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen on Monday, expecting a proposal that would work towards a solution to their contract. Instead, the offer from the union was the worst yet.

NJ Transit and BLET had agreed on a new contract that would raise engineers' pay from $135,000 to $172,000, which was rejected by union members. When contract negotiations resumed, the union asked for a $55,000 raise, which would increase the average engineer pay to $190,000, which was turned down by NJ Transit.

Kolluri anticipated an offer that would be "far and affordable."

"They came back with a proposal that now demands a $225,000 wage or a $90,000 wage increase. I'm not quite sure if they understand the rule of negotiation, or if this is how they intend to drag us along for the next several days till they get to strike. I think that the proposal that they have put forward is neither serious nor does it show a signal that they are willing to collaborate to get to a solution."

Kolluri said that the raise would require fares to go up by 34% and corporate transit fees to increase by 37%.  The offer was rejected. NJ Transit fares are already scheduled to go up by 3% on July 1.

"We want them to go back and think about what it is they are doing. What do they want to achieve? If they don't want a deal and they will scuttle any deal, then they should just tell the riders that's what they want," Kolluri said. "I am not sure where we go from here."

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A 'mischaracterization at best'of engineer salary

BLET General Chairman Tom Haas told New Jersey 101.5 that he doesn't understand where Kolluri gets his numbers from and called them a "mischaracterization at best."

"The offer that we presented to New Jersey Transit represents a 2% increase over what New Jersey Transit have offered us. The biggest discrepancy here is his constant recitation of this idea that engineers averaged $135,000 a year. That is simply not the case," Haas said. "The median wage for engineers in 2024 was only $105,000. That's $30,000 less than what he's stating. We have the payroll data from 2024 and we are simply not able, crunching the numbers in every way, to come up with where he's arriving at an average of $135,000. It just doesn't make sense."

Haas said that he expects NJ Transit to present a counterproposal.

On Friday, BLET National President Mark Wallace said he expects NJ Transit engineers to be on strike by the end of the month.

Haas said he has spoken to Wallace about negotiations and his belief that NJ Transit will either lock engineers out or impose the terms of their agreement, which would trigger a strike.

"It's the only thing we can do in response to their actions," Haas said.

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Kolluri said that if a strike is called, NJ Transit's contingency plan for its rail service will provide service to only 20% of its riders at a cost of $4 million per day.

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