Rail unionists to vote on new NJ Transit contract

Militant/Jacob Perasso

NEW YORK — Eleven rail unions representing 4,200 workers announced a tentative contract settlement with New Jersey Transit March 11, two days before the strike deadline unionists had authorized.

A thousand unionists had rallied in Woodbridge, New Jersey, March 5, above, against company concession demands.

Some union members the Militant contacted March 15 had yet to see a copy of the proposed contract and were reluctant to comment on it.

The big business press is reporting the new contract includes a 21 percent pay raise over eight and a half years — retroactive to 2011, when the last contract expired — while increasing workers out-of-pocket payment for medical coverage from $82 a month to $130 to $160 a month, depending upon which plan a worker has and their seniority.

Rail bosses on this state-run system had been pushing to increase workers’ monthly medical costs to as much as $460 to $642.

“I’m glad we finally reached a settlement, but the medical went up considerably and the raise isn’t as high as people wanted,” maintenance worker Joel Shumate, 24, who’s worked at New Jersey Transit for four years, told the Militant at New York’s Penn Station.

— NORTON SANDLER