N.J. Transit Negotiations Update: 'Productive, Positive' Day At Bargaining Table

Could a looming strike - now just five days away - possibly be averted?

Tuesday’s discussions between New Jersey Transit and 11 unions representing 4,000 rail and bus workers were “productive and positive,” according to Interim Executive Director Dennis Martin.

While the tenor of the meetings was positive, “there is still more work to be done,” Martin said. Negotiations will continue Wednesday and a face-to-face meeting between all parties is scheduled for Thursday.

If a pact can’t be settled this week, a strike will ensue as of 12:01 a.m. Sunday, March 13, creating roadway chaos for hundreds of thousands of commuters in New Jersey.

From 20-mile highway backups to the second largest east coast oil refinery being shut down, a work stoppage at New Jersey Transit could be crippling to the tri-state area.

And the possibility of that happening is less than a week away.

More than 4,000 workers from 11 separate unions are set to go on strike at 12:01 a.m. March 13 if contract negotiations don’t end in a new pact. The workers haven’t had a new contract since 2011.

And while the impact on those workers – who are fighting for higher wages and smaller healthcare contributions – would be dramatic, the hundreds of thousands of daily commuters who traverse New Jersey’s roadways to and from work would feel it much worse.

In a press conference on March 3, New Jersey Transit officials laid out a contingency plan in the event of a work stoppage, but conveyed how grim the scenario would be.

Some 105,000 commuters head from New Jersey into New York City each weekday morning, NJT said. During a strike, NJT would only be able to accommodate 40-percent of them, or roughly 38,000 commuters, and those travelers would have to take a bus into Manhattan.

Those buses, however, would be subject to the hellish highways that NJT projects would have 10,000 more cars per hour on the road during peak times. That would also mean an abundance of out-of-state drivers weaving through New York City's already packed streets.

Put it all together and NJT estimates more than 20-mile backups for car and bus travelers using the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, not to mention a 10-mile backup for George Washington Bridge users, all of which would result in hours-long backups at the Hudson River crossings.

See related:

• N.J. Transit Strike Looming, Unions Announce
• 'Nightmare' N.J. Transit Strike Would See 23-Mile Backups, 10K More Cars Per Hour
• N.J. Transit Strike Wouldn't Be First, But Would Be Worst

The trickle-down effect doesn’t just impact motorists who need to get into New York, of course.

According to the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, astrike would “cripple” the area’s freight trains which use NJT’s rail lines. The Bayway Refinery would shut down as a result of the strike, stopping production at the east coast’s second largest oil refinery which converts crude oil into gasoline, jet fuel, and heating oil, which is then transported to customers up and down the east coast.

“Bayway is also a major producer of plastics, but without the ability to move goods, workers will be left with nothing to do,” the organization said.

Freight train “movement” takes longer to restart than passenger trains, the organization said, and could take two to three times longer to be back in business than the strike itself.

“Paralyzing is probably a mild term,” said Steven Friedland, President of Short Line Data Systems Inc on the Tri-State Transportation’s blog. “It takes time to untie that knot, and every major industry in New Jersey south of Philadelphia will be affected.”

An NJT strike this month wouldn’t be the first, but it would certainly be the worst. Workers kept off the rails for 34 days in 1983, but NJT had a total daily usage of approximately 75,000 riders. In 2015, NJT averaged 135,000 riders each day for both intra and interstate commuting, which was its most voluminous year to date.

The rail lines have seen a 2.2-percent increase in ridership over the first two months of 2016, NJT told Patch.

After months of negotiations in Washington D.C. with the President’s Emergency Board, talks between both sides moved back up to Newark, N.J. on Monday, March 7.