NJ Transit officials asked President Joe Biden to form a Presidential Emergency Board, a move heading off a potential rail strike by locomotive engineers and trainmen that could have crippled the daily commute.
The request, confirmed by NJ Transit and union officials, temporarily calms fears of a strike or lockout by the agency that could have happened now that a 30-day, federally-ordered cooling off period between NJ Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union, ended Tuesday.
“We know they requested for the president to form a PEB,” Mark Wallace, BLE&T first vice president, told NJ Advance Media. “They have formally requested it.”
That request was made to the National Mediation Board and goes to Biden. The union was copied on NJ Transit’s request, Wallace said.
Federal officials have 30 days to create the PEB, said Jim Smith, an NJ Transit spokesperson, in a statement that also confirmed the request.
Gov. Phil Murphy also could have requested Biden form a PEB. His office referred questions to NJ Transit.
If Biden agrees to form a PEB, that stops the clock for 120 days while a panel of neutral experts review both sides’ arguments and other data and make a non-binding recommendation.
“We are prepared to present our case to a PEB if is appointed,” Wallace said.
Two PEB’s boards were formed in 2016 when a coalition of rial unions were negotiating with NJ Transit, but their recommendations weren’t accepted.
The cooling off period ending Wednesday was ordered after both sides were released from further talks by the National Mediation Board on June 24, when negotiations failed to produce a new contract.
The cooling-off period began on June 25 and ends Wednesday. If a PEB was not requested by July 25, either side could pursue “self help,” where the union could strike or NJ Transit could lock out union engineers.
Stuck in the middle are beleaguered commuters, fresh off a week of train cancellations and delays after record heat last week sidelined rail equipment.
The union took a strike vote last August, a step that BLE&T officials assured riders wouldn’t happen until federal mediation and negotiation requirements were exhausted.
The last strike against NJ Transit was in March 1983 and lasted for 34 days.
The BLE&T is the last of 15 rail unions to reach a contract with NJ Transit and have been working under a agreement that expired in 2019.
“All of this could have been avoided if NJ Transit bargained in good faith,” Wallace said
The federal Railway Labor Act spells out the process for when federal negotiators get involved, and other required steps before a strike is allowed, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.
The union has pledged not to strike until those measures are exhausted.
Salaries are the sticking point.
NJ Transit officials said previously that the agency made a “fair and pattern-based contract offer that has been accepted and ratified by 14 of our 15 rail unions covering 91% of our rail union employees.”
BLE&T officials contend NJ Transit engineers are the lowest paid engineers working in commuter service in the nation, now that engineers at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority ratified a new contract last week.
Pattern-based contracts don’t account for two years of specialized training to become an engineer and the knowledge and expertise required to qualify to operate trains on different parts of the railroad, union officials said.
The four-year contracts reached with other rail unions expire this year and the agency is poised to vote to settle contracts with two other rail unions on Wednesday that extend to 2027.
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Larry Higgs may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @CommutingLarry
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