New Jersey Transit and 11 of its rail unions, meanwhile, were gathering at a Newark hotel to negotiate a labor agreement five years after the most recent one expired.
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More than 4,000 NJ Transit rail workers have authorized a strike for early Sunday morning. It had offered a seven-and-a-half-year contract that skipped raises for 2011, awarded $1,000 lump-sum payments for 2012 and had annual increases of 1 percent to 2.5 percent.
“The last day or two have been characterized by reasonable progress, mostly in the way of tone and tenor”, Gary Dellaverson said.
Stay on topic – This helps keep the thread focused on the discussion at hand.
Contract talks will resume on Tuesday, they said.
At stake is rail service for about 100,000 people who commute into NY each day.
“We’ll take off tomorrow (Wednesday) and crunch some numbers”, he said.
The Partnership for New York City, a business organization, has estimated that a rail shutdown would cost New York City employers $5.9 million per hour and would hit the financial industry most heavily.
A union official said that isn’t the case and that NJ Transit hasn’t shared its plans or sought input.
Both sides had said that the talks were going well and they were closer to making a deal, but those talks may be soured by a letter sent by NJ Transit Vice President and General Manager R.M. Lavell.
Smith said buses will run on a stepped up schedule to try and make up for the lost connection.
NJ Transit has proposed a series of contingencies, including using major regional train stations for commuters to get a bus to take them either to New York, PATH stations or a ferry service.
The unions involved with NJ Transit bus operations are not involved in the potential strike, but buses are expected to be crammed full of displaced train riders if the rail unions strike.
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He offered this comment at a union rally where hundreds of rail workers were joined by New Jersey labor leaders, union supporters from Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road, and state and federal politicians. “This draconian action… illustrates NJ Transit’s unreasonable position and unwillingness to reach an amiable solution which is fair to both parties”.
