NEWARK, N.J. — The NJ Transit board of directors has approved the agency’s contract with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, after learning some of the key provisions of the deal.
The board’s unanimous vote on Thursday, July 17, ends a years-long dispute between NJ Transit and its engineers that included a brief strike in May. The BLET had ratified the tentative agreement in June [see “NJ Transit engineers ratify …,” Trains News Wire, June 10, 2025].
NorthJersey.com reports that NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri told the board the agreement includes four key givebacks by the union:
— Increase of the workday from eight to nine hours;
— A 3% gross wage contribution to the healthcare plan;
— Mandatory employee training can be done at home and outside of work hours, ending the need to pay time and half either to cover the shift of an employee undergoing training or for that employee to complete training on a day off;
— A 10% reduction in deadhead pay allowances.
“No other union that is of any consequence has come to our door and said, ‘I want the same deal.’ What does that tell you?” Kolluri told the board. “That the givebacks were real, they were consequential, and they gave NJ Transit what we had asked for, which is givebacks that had value.”
BLET General Chairman Tommy Haas told NorthJersey.com that the new agreement includes a starting hourly wage of $53 as of July 1, up from the $39.78 of the previous contract. That contract had expired in 2020; engineers had worked without a deal since then, under the terms of the old agreement.
“We did have to make some pretty tough decisions about how we wanted to proceed,” Haas said, “but overall, I mean, it definitely is a win for engineers and it really made some strides for us in areas that we really felt were important.”
