President Joe Biden named three members to a presidential emergency board that will oversee the latest round of negotiations between NJ Transit and a locomotive engineers union that has been working under an expired contract since 2019.
The board’s creation begins what could be an eight-month period before the engineers walk off the job. The union voted to approve a strike last August.
Elizabeth Wesman, a former president of the National Association of Railroad referees who chaired a presidential emergency board that oversaw a separate NJ Transit dispute in 2015, will chair the panel, Biden announced Wednesday.
She will be joined by Barbara Deinhardt, a former chair of the New York State Employment Relations Board who also sat on the 2015 panel, and Lisa Salkovitz Kohn, a board member of the National Academy of Arbitrators.
Biden’s move, which was required under federal law, is the latest step in a long-running dispute between NJ Transit and its locomotive engineers that has been in and out of negotiations for more than four years.
Because interruptions to rail service can significantly disrupt interstate commerce, federal law prescribes a lengthy process before rail unions can launch a job action.
Last month, the National Mediation Board released the parties from negotiations, setting off a 30-day cool-off period that was due to lapse on July 25.
NJ Transit requested Biden convene the emergency board, which will create a 120-lockout on job actions, though the board could end the lockout earlier if it chose to.
The parties and governors in states that would be affected by a railway strike can request a second presidential emergency board if the lockout period ends without a resolution, and Biden is required to grant requests for presidential emergency boards.
The second board would create its own 120-day lockout. The locomotive engineers could strike if the parties don’t reach a deal under the second board.
— Nikita Biryukov
This article was published by the New Jersey Monitor and is republished here with permission. Click here to view the original.
