What Happened?

On Friday, May 16th at 12:00 A.M., New Jersey Transit train engineers walked off the job and began the first commuter transit strike in 40 years. This was due to the failure of New Jersey Transit executives and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen—the workers’ union for New Jersey Transit train engineers—to reach a deal regarding employee wages. Workers demanded a higher wage, but the company refused, which led to the strike. Due to the train services serving approximately 350,000 people daily, immediate negotiations took place to resume train service. NJ Transit also filed a lawsuit, as they believed this strike violated the National Railway Labor Act. Since so many people were affected by the strike, NJ Transit was desperate to have some sort of operations, so they required un-unionized workers to return immediately. Luckily, the strike occurred on Friday, which is a less busy travel day compared to other weekdays. In addition to this, as the governor and NJ Transit executives warned people to work from home, bus service was not as overcrowded as expected.

How did the strike end?

Over the weekend, talks between executives at NNJTransit and the union agreed upon a deal, and it was announced that rail service is expected to resume on Tuesday, May 20th. Even better news was put out that some trains would resume service Monday, May 19th, which meant that no part of this week would have train service. The strike did not affect as many people as expected, as it ended quickly. But as the third busiest railway in the country, people worried for the worst and started preparing for long-term substitutions to their transit.