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7/25/2024
President Joe Biden yesterday established a Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) to investigate collective bargaining disputes between New Jersey Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), which represents the agency’s locomotive engineers.
Under the Railway Labor Act, the PEB will conduct a hearing and make a recommendation for settlement within 30 days of the board’s creation. No work stoppages, and no changes in the conditions out of which the disputes arose (except by agreement of the parties), are permitted for 120 days following the board’s creation, National Mediation Board (NMB) officials said in a press release.
The board’s three appointees are Elizabeth Wesman as chair, and Barbara Deinhardt and Lisa Salkovitz Kohn as members. The PEB’s report to President Biden is due Aug. 23, according to a BLET press release.
Appointment of the PEB comes prior to the expiration of a 30-day cooling-off period that began June 25. Under the Rail Labor Act, either party would have been able to exercise self-help — a strike by the union or lockout by the management — had a PEB not been established, BLET officials noted.
The contract dispute has been in NMB-sponsored mediation for nearly three years.
“This labor dispute has dragged on for far too long, but we will respect the process established by the Railway Labor Act,” said BLET National President Eddie Hall.