New Jersey rail strike could cause nightmare for commuters … and Shakira and Beyoncé fans

Engineers at New Jersey Transit are poised to go on strike one minute after midnight Friday morning, a stoppage that would create huge problems for100,000 daily train commuters, businesses across the New York metropolitan area as well as fans of Shakira and Beyoncé, who will have trouble getting to concerts the two stars have planned in upcoming shows.

Engineers at New Jersey Transit are poised to go on strike one minute after midnight Friday morning, a stoppage that would create huge problems for 100,000 daily train commuters, businesses across the New York metropolitan area as well as fans of Shakira and Beyoncé, who will have trouble getting to concerts the two stars have planned in upcoming shows. The railroad and its engineers appear far apart from reaching an 11th hour deal that would avert the strike after 87% of rank-and file members of the International Brotherhood of Engineers and Trainmen voted against a previous tentative deal that would have given them their first raise since 2019. Railroad officials are urging the commuters who ride its trains daily to make other plans and to work from home, if possible. The majority of commuters on the nation’s third-largest commuter railroad use New Jersey Transit to get to their jobs in New York City. Besides the congestion that will likely clog the bridges and tunnels that span the Hudson River, many commuters to the city would be hit with up to a $9 “congestion pricing” toll, in addition to bridge and tunnel tolls that can cost more than twice that amount. Terms of the rejected deal were not disclosed, but the union had gone into the negotiations seeking raises of 18% to 23% for its 500 members. The union says its members are paid about about 20% less than their counterparts at Amtrak, and three other commuter railroads in the region. “We, the locomotive engineers of NJ Transit are asking only for a fair and competitive wage,” said Thomas Haas, the general chairman of the union’s unit representing the nearly 500 engineers at the railroad, in remarks Wednesday night before the meeting of NJ Transit’s board. “We are now almost out of time to solve this problem before a work stoppage takes place. The last thing we want to see is that (service) to be interrupted. But we’re at the end of our rope.”