Talks - THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG.

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New Jersey Transit and rail worker unions on Tuesday were closer to a contract agreement to head off a strike than they were a day earlier, a union official said. Associated Press Read more

Basics of dispute

The dispute revolves around a 5-year-old contract stalemate. Unions have demanded a deal similar to the one signed in 2014 by the Long Island Railroad, with an 18-percent pay raise over seven years plus retroactive pay from 2011, when the current contract came up for negotiation. The unions also want a modest increase in employees’ health insurance payments, capped at 2.5 percent of their base salaries.

NJ Transit told the Presidential Emergency Board, which has been mediating the latest discussions, that such a plan would cost the agency an additional $183 million by 2018. In a Feb. 19 letter to New Jersey’s Congressional delegation, NJ Transit said the union proposal was “excessive,” and included “platinum-level health benefits.”