As strike vote looms, judge tells NJ Transit train engineers to show up to work on Labor Day

A federal judge declined a request by NJ Transit to issue an injunction that would have stopped the agency’s locomotive engineers union from taking steps toward a stike, but she ordered the labor group to tell its members to show up for work on Labor Day weekend, days after the union’s strike vote is due to conclude.

The NJ Transit Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen launched a strike authorization vote earlier this month after years in mediation under an old contract, but federal rules set lengthy waiting periods for railway strikes, and the union already faces temporary restraints over a sickout on Juneteenth last year.

NJ Transit had sought an order barring the union from striking, with agency officials saying they worry the strike authorization vote’s Aug. 31 deadline would precede a job action that would violate the existing order and provisions of the Railway Labor Act.

“Sometimes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. The last thing we wanted to do was wait,” Raj Parikh, representing the agency, told Judge Christine O’Hearn.

O’Hearn said the agency had brought no evidence labor officials were planning a second unauthorized strike, dismissing newspaper reports that suggested the union could launch a job action as hearsay.

“This was a nuisance motion. It was frivolous. A complete waste of the court’s time and taxpayer dollars,” said BLET National President Eddie Hall.

But, out of an abundance of caution, O’Hearn ordered the union to tell its members to show up for work on Labor Day.

“Please don’t do anything that requires me to issue injunctive relief,” she told union attorneys.

O’Hearn last year enjoined the NJ Transit engineers union from launching illegal strikes after hundreds of engineers called out on Juneteenth during a dispute over holiday pay and work hours, forcing the agency to cancel numerous trains that weekend.

The union has been in mediation before the National Mediation Board for three years, and they’ve been working under a contract that lapsed in 2019.

NJ Transit has sought a contract that mirrors ones awarded to NJ Transit’s 14 other bargaining units, but officials with the locomotive engineers union say their contract should include higher wage increases to reflect heightened training requirements, stress faced by the engineers, and pay for engineers at regional competitors like Amtrak.

Jamie Horowitz, a spokesperson for the national Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen — which must authorize strike votes by local units — last week told the New Jersey Monitor the labor group hoped an overwhelming strike vote might push negotiations out of mediation.

Even if that happens, the union will likely have to wait at least five months — or up to nine months — to launch a job action that complies with the provisions of the Railway Labor Act.