New Jersey Transit reaches tentative deal with engineers union that could end strike

Negotiators for New Jersey Transit and the union representing 450 striking engineers have reached a tentative labor agreement that could bring an end to the strike that began Friday, according to TK

(CNN) – Negotiators for New Jersey Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), the union representing 450 striking engineers, have reached a tentative labor agreement that would bring an end to the three-day strike, according to the union. New Jersey Transit did not have a comment on the union’s statement, but CEO Kris Kolluri and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy have scheduled a news conference for Sunday at 7:45 p.m. ET. The engineers are due back at work on Monday. But a spokesman for NJ Transit, while not commenting on the settlement, said that the trains were not expected to run until Tuesday because of procedures that need to be followed before they can start rolling again. The union initially said the trains would be running on Monday. Terms of the tentative deal were not immediately available. The agreement still needs to be ratified by the majority of rank-and-file members for the threat of a resumption of the strike to be put to rest. A previous vote on an earlier tentative agreement failed with 87% of members voting no. The strike that started Friday has had the potential to greatly disrupt the work plans of around 100,000 regular customers of the nation’s third-largest commuter railroad, as well as businesses across the New York metropolitan region. It also had the potential to inconvenience fans of Beyoncé, who has five concerts beginning Thursday evening at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, just 10 miles from Midtown Manhattan. “While I won’t get into the exact details of the deal reached, I will say that the only real issue was wages and we were able to reach an agreement that boosts hourly pay beyond the proposal rejected by our members last month and beyond where we were when NJ Transit’s managers walked away from the table Thursday evening,” said Tom Haas, the head of the union’s unit that represents the NJ Transit engineers. “We also were able to show management ways to boost engineers’ wages that will help NJT with retention and recruitment, without causing any significant budget issue or requiring a fare increase.”