NJ Transit and rail union officials returned to the bargaining table Friday a day after the tenor of the negotiations appeared to have soured, with the union criticizing NJ Transit and threatening to punish workers who would cross picket lines.

Although officials earlier in the week expressed optimism that a labor agreement would be reached, averting a strike that would plunge northern New Jersey into traffic congestion and commuter chaos, union officials issued a statement Thursday afternoon blasting NJ Transit for retaliating and harassing union employees.

The message from SMART (Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, Transportation) Local 60 was in response to an NJ Transit notice to employees warning that job benefits would be suspended in the event of a strike.

Union officials said NJ Transit’s decision to issue the notice was a “draconian action” illustrating “NJ Transit’s unreasonable position and unwillingness to reach an amiable solution which is fair to both parties.” But the transportation agency said the notice was required by federal law.

Also on Thursday, the union issued a warning to its own members, saying any worker who reported to work during a strike would be labeled a "scab" and face fines of at least $1,000 a day.

“You will also be brought up on charges by the local and if found to have worked while we were on strike you will be expelled from the local and lose your employment,” SMART Local 60 general chairman Stephen J. Burkert said in the message posted publicly to the union's website.

After New Jersey 101.5 reported on the message, the website appeared to have been taken down. Union officials did not immediately return a request for comment Friday morning.

The 4,200 rail workers have been without a contract for five years. Both sides have been unable to reach a deal on workers' share of their health benefit costs.

The union has the right to go on strike if no agreement is reached by Sunday.

Although NJ Transit has developed a contingency plan that adds bus service, the plan would only accommodate about 40,000 of the more than 100,000 commuters who rely on NJ Transit trains to take them across the Hudson River every weekday.

A strike could add an estimated 10,000 cars to the roads every hour and cause 25-mile traffic jams on the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike.

It is a common goal to reach that conclusion in a timely fashion so that the threat of a strike is lifted from the heads of the commuters

Hours before the union issued its statements, NJ Transit Special Counsel Gary Dellaverson indicated talks had been productive and "their desire and our desire at least as of this moment is the same, and that is to reach a peaceful across the table resolution of the collective bargaining agreement between the rail coalition and New Jersey Transit.

But he refused to specify how close the two sides are to completing a deal.

"It is a common goal to reach that conclusion in a timely fashion so that the threat of a strike is lifted from the heads of the commuters, and they can go back about worrying about all the things that the rest of us worry about every day, they don’t need to worry about how am I going to get to work, and get to the doctor.”

David Matthau contributed to this report.

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