“We all have to do something,” Osborn said.
“The deal itself reflects a series of concessions that came together by way of a work bill that will eventually end up paying for this fair wage that the union has asked for,” Kolluri said at the news conference.Buses would be provided on Monday, but Murphy and Kolluri both urged commuters, if possible, to work from home for one more day.
“Please do that tomorrow so we can move essential employees through the system,” Kolluri said.A month earlier, members of the union had overwhelmingly rejected— the nation’s third-largest transit system — operates buses and rail in the state, providing nearly 1 million weekday trips, including into New York City. The walkout halted all NJ Transit commuter trains, which provide heavily used public transit routes between New York City’s Penn Station on one side of the Hudson River and communities in northern New Jersey on the other, as well as the
, which has grappled with unrelated delays of its own recently.Mark Wallace, the union’s national president, had said NJ Transit needs to pay engineers a wage that’s comparable to Amtrak and Long Island Railroad because some are leaving for jobs on those other railroads for better pay.
The union had said its members have been earning an average salary of $113,000 a year and it wanted to see an agreement for an average salary of $170,000.
NJ Transit leadership, though, disputed the union’s data, saying the engineers have average total earnings of $135,000 annually, with the highest earners exceeding $200,000.But for some, Egede symbolizes the arrival of colonialism and the suppression of rich Inuit traditions and culture by Lutheran missionaries and Denmark’s rule.
Greenland is now a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, and Greenlanders are increasingly in favor of getting full independence — a crucial issue in the election on March 11.Some say Greenland’s independence movement has received a boost after
by threatening to take it over.At a time of uncertainty, “it’s important for us to have faith,” said the Rev. John Johansen after a service at the Hans Egede Church, where an American couple visiting Greenland attended wearing pins that read: “I didn’t vote for him.”