NEW JERSEY — An avalanche of cancellations hit NJ Transit.
The morning mess of NJ Transit train cancellations continued well into the afternoon as a shortage of engineers left commuters scrambling to get around.
Dozens of trains were canceled during the day Friday, most of which were canceled “due to engineer availability,” according to alert bulletins posted on the NJ Transit website.
Friday marks the new Juneteenth holiday in New Jersey, but NJ Transit engineers will not receive holiday pay because a new contract has not been reached.
Without that contract, engineers don’t get the vacation pay that other union groups now do.
Rumors of a labor action began to circulate Thursday when NJ Transit sent a letter to the engineers’ union warning workers to miss work Friday.
Engineers who didn’t show up for work forced service cancellations on several train lines on Friday. The Northeast Corridor and the North Jersey Coast Line were particularly affected.
A spokesman for NJ Transit said calls to miss work for engineers on Friday were triple those for an average weekday.
“NJ TRANSIT is disappointed that the union is perpetuating such an act on the more than 100,000 customers who depend on NJ TRANSIT rail service every day. We intend to explore all legal remedies in response to this illegal and irresponsible action,” he said. a spokesperson for NJ Transit. he said in a statement to our sister network NBC News 4 New York.
Calling the engineers’ actions “illegal,” NJ Transit said it would pursue all possible legal remedies in response to the labor action.
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