(Bloomberg) — New Jersey Transit’s newly inked deal with its locomotive engineers would boost pay to more than $50 an hour, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.
The starting hourly wage for NJ Transit engineers has been about $39.78 an hour, their union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said previously. The hike would bring the wages more in line with those at Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad. The union had been seeking parity with those neighboring agencies.
A union spokesperson declined to comment. New Jersey Transit did not respond to a request for comment.
Wages were the key factor in a long-running dispute between the transit agency and the union representing its employees. Union members will now vote on the tentative agreement, with results expected on June 10.
The parties had provided conflicting reports on the average annual earnings of the agency engineers. NJ Transit officials said that engineers make $135,000 a year on average, with the highest earners pulling in more than $200,000. Union representatives argued those numbers were inflated, saying that the average was only $113,000 per year, with a substantial number of locomotive engineers falling well below that.
The general chairman of the union, Tom Haas, previously said that if the agency offered an average annual salary of $172,000, he’d take the deal.
The tentative pay deal ended a three-day strike that halted NJ Transit rail service, which shuttles hundreds of thousands of passengers every day. Workers began the strike on Friday, May 16 and the walkout lasted until Sunday evening. Train service resumed Tuesday following a 24 hour inspection of the system’s equipment.
While the union negotiators were advocating for higher pay, NJ Transit officials said that any contract must be affordable for the agency at a time when transit systems across the US are staring down a funding crisis.
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