As union workers prepared to strike, Gov.
Philip D.
Murphy of New Jersey said the
state’s transit system was facing a “sobering
fiscal reality”
and that he hoped for the best.
Dakota Santiago for The New York Times
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The first statewide transit strike in New Jersey
in more than 40 years began just after
midnight Friday when about 450 unionized
locomotive engineers walked off their jobs in
a dispute over pay.
The walkout by members of the Brotherhood
of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen shut
down New Jersey Transit’s rail network. The
strike will leave tens of thousands of
commuters scrambling for other ways to
reach their jobs in the New York City
metropolitan region.
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The union said its members will start
picketing at 4 a.m. on Friday.
Mark Wallace, the union’s national president,
said: “They have money for penthouse views
and pet projects, just not for their frontline
workers. Enough is enough. We will stay out
until our members receive the fair pay that
they deserve.”
Kris Kolluri, the chief executive of NJ Transit,
said at a news conference late Thursday, that
he would return to the bargaining table at any
time. “This is not a lost cause,” he said. “This
is an eminently achievable deal.”
Gov. Philip D. Murphy said the agency’s offer
to the union “would have given their
members almost exactly what they asked for.”
About 70,000 commuters ride the agency’s
trains to Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan
on a typical weekday. Many thousands more
ride trains to stations in Newark and
Hoboken, where they transfer to other trains,
buses or ferries.
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