Last 2 Unions Sign Contract With NJ Transit, Averting Strike

(AP) —

Two rail unions have signed contracts with New Jersey Transit, averting a potential strike.

The Record reports unions representing locomotive engineers and conducts ratified the contracts on Friday and Saturday, respectively. They were the last of 11 rail unions to do so.

The Associated Press first reported the two unions had reached tentative agreements with the agency on June 25.

The other nine rail unions had signed contracts after a tentative agreement was reached in March, about a day before a strike deadline.

Specific details on the contracts weren’t immediately available.

The rail unions had been working without a contract for about five years. NJ Transit officials had previously said fares might have to be raised to cover the costs associated with the new contracts, but no increases have been announced.

Approximately 105,000 people commute into New York each weekday via NJ Transit, the nation’s third-largest commuter railroad.

At a news conference before the agreements were reached in March, NJ Transit officials said strike contingency plans to use buses, ferries and PATH trains would only be able to accommodate about 40 percent of those commuters.

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