(16 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aberdeen Township, New Jersey – 16 May 2025
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Gov. Phil Murphy, (D) New Jersey:
"Normally, you know, I’d start a press conference like this one by saying good morning, but for families and commuters here in Monmouth County and frankly all across New Jersey this morning is anything but a good morning. Their days are off to an unnecessarily difficult start. We’re now roughly 10 hours into New Jersey’s first rail strike in decades. And I want to make sure we get one thing straight up front. It did not have to come to this."
++WHITE FLASH++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Gov. Phil Murphy, (D) New Jersey:
"At this moment, our single highest priority in addition to making work, just as it has been for the past several months, is reaching a fair and affordable deal as soon as humanly possible. A deal that provides NJ Transit’s employees, including our locomotive engineers the wages and benefits they deserve without being forced to raise costs on riders, commuters, and taxpayers."
++WHITE FLASH++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Gov. Phil Murphy, (D) New Jersey:
"We are, our doors are open. We are ready to restart negotiations literally this second. But we need the BLET to come back to the negotiating table in good faith. Our doors are open. They will remain open."
++WHITE FLASH++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Gov. Phil Murphy, (D) New Jersey:
"We believe that a deal is there. And God willing, that will come to fruition."
++WHITE FLASH++
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Kris Kolluri, NJ Transit CEO:
"We, the governor and I, just had a chance to meet with the locomotive engineers who are out there. Just a few minutes ago. They were gracious to us. You know what they said to us? They wanna get back to work. That’s great. We want them to get back to work too. But we said to them, we want to get back to the work, but we want to make sure you continue to work because what’s the point of giving you a pay raise, if a couple of years from now your job is not going to exist. That’s sort of what we’re talking about in the most plain and simple terms."
STORYLINE:
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy held a briefing on the transit strike that has left some 350-thousand commuters in the lurch Friday, insisting, "It did not have to come to this."
New Jersey Transit train engineers are on strike in a dispute over wages, and comes after the latest round of negotiations on Thursday didn’t produce an agreement.
It is the state’s first transit strike in more than 40 years and comes a month after union members overwhelmingly rejected a labor agreement with management.
Speaking at a news conference Friday morning, Gov. Murphy said his "single highest priority" is to reach a fair and affordable deal as soon as humanly possible."
Muphy said it was important to “reach a final deal that is both fair to employees and at the same time affordable to New Jersey’s commuters and taxpayers.”
NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri appeared alongside Murphy and said they got close to what the union was seeking on wages but raised concerns about the longer-term fiscal health of the transit agency.
“What’s the point of giving you a pay raise if a couple of years from now your job is not going to exist?” Kolluri said. “That’s sort of what we’re talking about in the most plain and simple terms.”
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union said NJ Transit needs to pay engineers a wage that’s comparable to Amtrak and Long Island Railroad because engineers are leaving for jobs on those other railroads for better pay.
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