星期五，新泽西的火车司机们开始停止工作，也就是罢工。因为这样，大约三十五万需要每天坐火车去新泽西和纽约上班的人，不得不找别的方法去上班，或者选择待在家里。

The strike started after talks on Thursday didn't work. It's the first transport strike in the state in over 40 years, after workers voted against a deal last month.

汤姆·豪斯说：“我们把最后的建议给了他们。但是，他们很快就拒绝了，那时离最后期限只有两个小时了。他们还停止了和我们谈话。”

新泽西捷运的负责人克里斯·科鲁里说，现在的情况是“对话暂时停止”。

他在星期四晚上和新泽西州的州长菲尔·墨菲一起开了一个新闻会。他说：“我当然希望可以很快继续和他们谈话。如果他们今天晚上想见面，我今天晚上就可以再和他们见面。如果他们明天早上想见面，我也可以。因为我觉得这件事很重要，我们可以解决。最重要的是，他们是不是真的想找到解决办法。”

墨菲说，达成一个对员工好，也让新泽西的上班族和交税的人可以接受的协议，非常重要。

The labor union said they made this announcement after talking about the contract for 15 hours without stopping. They think the pickets will start at 4 AM on Friday.

新泽西捷运是一个很大的公共交通系统，在美国排第三。它在新泽西州有巴士和火车。每个工作日，人们乘坐它大约一百万次，包括去纽约市上班。因为这次罢工，新泽西捷运的火车都停了。这些火车连接纽约市的宾州车站和新泽西州北部的社区。而且，去纽瓦克机场的火车最近也经常晚点。

The organisation has shared its plan for emergencies. They plan to have more buses. But they say the buses will only help a little bit with the New York train lines. These buses are near the train stations. The buses will start on Monday. The organisation will also work with bus companies to have buses from parking areas during busy times.

However, the organisation said that these buses cannot carry as many people as the trains. They can only carry about 20% of the train passengers. So, they suggest that people who can work from home should try to do so during the strike.

The *threat* of a strike has already caused problems for travel. Because we don't know what will happen, New Jersey Transit has stopped train and bus services for the Shakira concerts at MetLife Stadium on Thursday and Friday.

On Monday, everyone involved met in Washington with people from the Federal Mediation Committee to talk about this problem. These mediators were also at the talks on Thursday. On Thursday night, Mr. Corley said that the Mediation Committee suggested meeting again on Sunday morning to continue the talks.

工资一直是这家机构和火车工程师工会之间讨论的主要问题。工会希望他们的成员能拿到和附近其他铁路公司差不多的工资。他们说，现在他们的成员平均一年挣113,000美元。工会认为，如果机构的负责人克里斯·科鲁里同意把平均工资提高到170,000美元，他们就能达成协议。

但是，新泽西捷运的领导不太相信工会给出的数字。他们说工程师一年大概能挣十三万五千美元，工资最高的人能挣二十万美元以上。

科鲁里和墨菲星期四晚上说，他们觉得可以同意加薪。但是，他们担心如果给他们加薪，其他工会也会要求加薪。这样会让新泽西捷运有很多经济问题。

The government can stop strikes and make workers agree to a deal. But this time, they don't seem to want to prevent a train strike like they did in 2022.

At the same time, the number of union members at New Jersey Transit has been slowly going down. This is because more and more members are leaving to find jobs with better pay. For example, the number of engineers at New Jersey Transit was 500 a few months ago, but now it's about 450.