NJ Transit will announce on Monday its next step after the two unions that rejected the March offer did not agree to extend a cooling off period that would allow contract negotiations to continue without the threat of a service disruption.

"The unions representing locomotive engineers and conductors have ignored NJ Transit’s agreement to extend their ‘cooling off period’ until July 16,"NJ Transit spokeswoman Nancy Snyder said Friday. "The National Mediation Board, the federal agency that supervises railroad labor negotiations, requested that both parties agree to extend their no strike/no lockout pledge until the United States Congress returns from its recess. NJ Transit agreed, but the unions have not responded."

The current deadline ends Thursday. Nine other unions ratified an agreement reached in March that avoided a system-wide strike. Members of the SMART TD and the BLET, the two largest unions representing conductors and engineers respectively,  turned down the agreement.

During a new round of negotiations, both sides agree to continue operating as normal. After the "cooling off period" ends on June 30 the union could order a work stoppage or the rail line could lock out employees.

In a letter obtained by New Jersey 101.5, NJ Transit special counsel Gary J. Dellaverson advises the mediation board that NJ Transit needs to "begin executing its plans for operations in the event of a strike" if the cooling off period is not extended in order to continue providing a "safe and reliable commute."

Snyder said that talks have been ongoing but no resolution has been reached.

"NJ Transit is committed to ensuring that customers suffer the least inconvenience possible as a result of these unions’ inflexibility," she said.

In a message posted Wednesday on its website, General Chairman Stephen Burkert, of SMART Local 60, which represented all 11 employee unions, urged his members to attend a meeting on Sunday.

"There will be special announcements/ plans coming soon based upon how the talks are progressing or not progressing," wrote Burkert. The chairman wrote that he is ready to negotiate a temporary agreement "whenever the Carrier (NJ Transit) is ready to talk."

Democrat state Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, who hosted a rally of union workers before the March strike threat, said "it's going to be interesting."

"Anything can happen. I would predict that they would settle but I don't think anyone in the process takes that for granted so they've got a lot of hard work to do between now and midweek."

Vitale said that the engineers and conductors, while on the same team as the other locals that approved the deal, said "they believe their particular part of the contract should be fair from their perspective. NJ Transit, of course, thinks differently. Just because the other locals reached an agreement and have an accord with NJ Transit doesn't necessarily mean they should go along as well. It's a separate bargaining unit. Their responsibilities  are different from the other units that settled."

Vitale said that the transit workers recognize "they continue to move hundreds of thousands of people every day to and from their jobs but NJ Transit has to step up and do the right thing by them as well."

The contract runs through 2019. It provides a 21 percent pay increase, including back pay, and requires workers to pay 2.48 percent of their salaries toward their health insurance.

"When you add their additional contributions they have to make for health, which are significant, the average net increase is 1.7 percent," Christie said on the March 30 "Ask the Governor" program. "That's a good deal — good deal for them, good deal for the taxpayers."

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