Michael Smart, Associate Professor at school of planning and public policy at Rutgers Interview

Michael Smart speaks with Mendte in the Morning about the NJ Transit engineers strike that has shut down all rail lines.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now let's talk about the big story of the day.
And I'm very happy to have Michael Smart, Associate Professor
at the Edward J. Blaustein School of Planning in Public
Policy at Rutgers University. Michael, I saw you on television
and I'm happy you could make it here this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yeah, so just give give me your thoughts on all
of this. Let's just start with the historic nature of this.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, so this is the first strike since nineteen eighty
three at New Jersey Transit. The eighty three strike was
just right in the first years of New Jersey Transit's existence,
so this is pretty unprecedented. It is a big nightmare
for commuters. You know, there are certainly some folks who
are able to work from home, but it's not a

(00:49):
lot of people. We estimate, sort of back of the
envelope that about a third of commuters are not able
to do that. And then there are people who are
not commuting, not going to work, but are going to
doctor's appointments and so on and so forth that they've
had scheduled for ages and they're really they're really hurting today. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
No, it's a nightmare and it's frustrating. It's really frustrating
only because they both sides said they were extremely close.
As a matter of fact, they headed the labor union
said that they didn't even schedule a news conference because
they thought it was going to be settled. And then
it sounds like and we have to find that, we
have to verify this. This is the Labor Union saying this.

(01:31):
That Jersey Transit walked away from the table at ten
o'clock when they were so close. That is really frustrating.
Do you believe because of those reports this could be
settled quickly.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
I'm not terribly optimistic that this will be settled too quickly.
The back and forth between management and labor on this
has been more public than is typical for this kind
of you know, labor negotiation. There's a lot of bad blood,
and I'm not sure, just just as you are not.

(02:05):
I think what happened last night, but it doesn't sound
good whatever it was. So I don't think that we're
much closer today than we were yesterday.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, I think I just put a lot of hope
in the fact that both sides agreed they were very
very close to a deal. So I'm not sure if
that's good news or bad news. The fact that they
were that close and then they couldn't strike a deal.
You've been covering these for a long time. Is that usual?
Wouldn't they extend a deadline or do something if they
were that close.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
I would think that if they were very close to
a deal last night, that they wouldn't have walked away
at ten pm, that they would have made it work.
So my you know, my gut on this is that
we're not we're not hours away from a settlement, but
a bit more than that.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Well give it, how about days away? About how about Sunday?
That would be a good day.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
That would be great. Yes, I commute on you's transit.
I would love for that to happen. The last strike
took almost a month. I really don't think we're going
to see something like that happen. I think there's too
much pressure and both sides have too much to lose
to let something drag on for a month this time around.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, talk about what they have to lose. We know
what the employees have to lose, what the people on
the labor have to lose. What is the state New
Jersey trends that have to lose?

Speaker 2 (03:27):
So New Jersey transit is a big part of the
economic engine of New Jersey and also of New York City.
There's a lot to be lost in terms of economic
sort of viability and productivity if people are not able
to get to work. And that's even considering the fact
that compared to the nineteen eighty three strike, there's a

(03:48):
lot more people who can work from home, yet there's
still a lot who can't. Right there are a lot
of jobs that just can't be done from a computer
at your kitchen table. And that's a lot of the
reporting that we're hearing this morning is is that folks
who have jobs, you know, in trade and service industries
and so on and so forth, if they're really the

(04:09):
people were hurting. And so I think that, you know,
there's a lot of pressure to make sure that the
economy in this sort of precarious time that we're in
right now, isn't hampered further by a whole bunch of
people not being able to get to work.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, there's been some horrible back and forth on both
sides are pointing fingers at the other side, But the
union has a pretty good argument. It's been a while
since they had a contract.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, so they have not had a contract since twenty nineteen.
They've not had a raise since twenty nineteen. This means
that they're purchasing power. The amount of stuff that the
workers that are covered by that contract can buy has
declined by about twenty percent over those years, a little
more than twenty percent. So whatever a person might think
about the actual wage that these folks are receiving, they're

(04:59):
receiving less than other railroad workers in the region. And
they've seen their quality of life declined by twenty percent
in terms of their purchasing power over the uncontracted period,
and so that's I think pretty intolerable to any worker,
and we're seeing the results of that.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah, you've followed a lot of these. Should we expect
there to be talks over the weekend if indeed they
were that close, which maybe it doesn't sound like they were.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
I think they'll talk over the weekend. I don't have
any confirmation on that, but I think both sides are
very eager to see this come to a resolution. So
it would surprise me, I would be that would be
I think a pretty bad sign if they were not
talks over the weekend.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, good point, Absolutely Thanks so much for talking to us.
It really was a pleasure. Michael Smart, Associate professor at
the Edward J. Blaustein School of Planning in Public Policy
at Rutgers, would like to keep talking to you during
the strike if we can thank you.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Sure. Thanks,