President Joseph R. Biden Jr. appointed Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) No. 251 to investigate the collective bargaining dispute between the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and New Jersey Transit (NJT). Pursuant to the Railway Labor Act (RLA), the PEB will have 30 days to convene, hear the positions of the BLET and the carrier, and issue recommendations for settlement of the dispute. The report is due to the President on August 23.
President Biden has appointed the following members to Emergency Board 251:
- Elizabeth C. Wesman, Chair
- Barbara C. Deinhardt, Member
- Lisa Salkovitz Kohn, Member
Appointment of the PEB comes just prior to the expiration of a 30-day cooling-off period that began on June 25. Under the RLA, either party would have been able to exercise self-help (strike by the union or lockout by the management) had a PEB not been established.
The contract dispute has been in National Mediation Board (NMB) sponsored mediation for nearly three years. NJT’s locomotive engineers have been seeking a new labor agreement since October 2019. NJT’s engineers are the lowest paid engineers working in commuter service in the nation.
“This labor dispute has dragged on for far too long, but we will respect the process established by the Railway Labor Act,” BLET National President Eddie Hall said. “NJT has nearly a half-billion dollars for lavish new office space, they recently raised fares by 15 percent. Meanwhile, they haven’t offered their engineers competitive wages with other passenger railroads. It’s time for NJT to make a fair offer and settle this dispute voluntarily. Otherwise, our members will be walking picket lines rather than operating trains.”
In an interview with NJ Advance Media/NJ.com, BLET First Vice President Mark Wallace said, “All of this could have been avoided if NJ Transit bargained in good faith.”
The rate of pay for locomotive engineers has been a major sticking point. The carrier insists on implementing a pattern-based contract settlement accepted by other rail unions. However, BLET contends that such 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.
The NMB provided this timeline (PDF ble-t.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/NJT_PEB_Timeline.pdf) for settlement of the dispute.