Passengers ride the air train at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey on May 7, 2025. (Photo by Kena Betancur / AFP)
New York: Train services ground to a halt in New Jersey one minute after midnight on Friday, according to the railway operator, as the US state's first mass transit strike in decades took hold following a pay dispute.
The stoppage could snarl commutes across the Eastern Seaboard states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. NJ Transit, the third-largest transit system in the United States, said 350,000 customers rely on its services each day.
Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) union plan to start picketing at 4:00 am on Friday (0800 GMT).
"Due to a strike by locomotive engineers representing Brother of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen all NJ TRANSIT rail service is currently suspended," the rail operator said on its website.
While NJ Transit announced contingency plans, it acknowledged these alternatives could accommodate "approximately 20 percent of current rail customers," and encouraged anyone who could to work from home.
The union said it has been locked in a years-long dispute with NJ Transit, with its members going five years without a raise.
The union is seeking new contracts for around 450 engineers with hourly wages matching those of the neighbouring Long Island Rail Road.
"NJ Transit has a half-billion dollars for a swanky new headquarters," BLET National President Mark Wallace said in a statement. "They have money for penthouse views and pet projects, just not for their front-line workers. Enough is enough."
On Thursday night, 11th-hour contract negotiations collapsed.
NJ Transit officials have said the wage hike requested by the union would end up costing the company and taxpayers millions.
At a livestreamed press conference shortly before the strike began, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said the union rejected a deal that would have given the engineers "their hard-earned raises without blowing up NJ Transit's budget."
"I'll be the first to acknowledge that all of the agency's employees, including our locomotive engineers, are the backbone of New Jersey's public transit system," he said, "But the workers and families who rely on our transit system every single day are the backbone of our entire economy."
He invited the union to continue negotiating on Sunday morning.
The transportation company expects the strike to predominantly affect daily commutes for about 70,000 New York-bound passengers, while also disrupting the travel of many thousands more along its extensive network.
New Jersey's local Bergen Record newspaper reported that the last statewide transit strike occurred in 1983 and lasted 34 days.
