It's Deja Vu All Over Again as NJ Transit Faces Possible Rail Strike

Back in March, with a little over one day to go before a threatened walkout, New Jersey Transit struck a tentative agreement with its rail unions. The deal: a 21 percent retroactive salary increase in exchange for workers paying more toward health care costs.

But two of the unions voted to reject the contract. That triggered a process governed by federal law, and now those unions could strike as early as June 30.

"Talks continue," reads a statement on the website of the New Jersey Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, one of the unions that failed to ratify the contract. "Nothing new to report at this time."

The second union, UTU Local 60, did not respond to a request for comment.

When asked about plans to provide rail service in the event of a strike, New Jersey Transit's interim executive director, Dennis Martin, said "negotiations are ongoing; it's not prudent to speak of a contingency." Not to mention painful: the agency's previous contingency plans only provided service for 40 percent of its 105,000 New York-bound rail commuters.