WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order creating a Presidential Emergency Board to help resolve an ongoing dispute between New Jersey Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET). The appointment of the Board is required under the Railway Labor Act because a party to the dispute has requested an Emergency Board.
The Presidential Emergency Board will provide a structure that allows the two sides to attempt to resolve their disagreements. In the 60 days following its establishment, the Presidential Emergency Board will produce a report to the President that selects the offer that the Board finds to be the most reasonable. The Board’s report is not binding, but the party whose offer is not selected would be prohibited by law from receiving certain benefits if a work stoppage subsequently occurs.
President Biden also announced that he intends to appoint the following members to Presidential Emergency Board No. 252:
- Ira F. Jaffe, Chair, Presidential Emergency Board No. 252
- Sidney Moreland, Member, Presidential Emergency Board No. 252
- Thomas Pontolillo, Member, Presidential Emergency Board No. 252
Ira F. Jaffee, Chair, Presidential Emergency Board No. 252
Ira F. Jaffe has served as a full-time arbitrator and mediator of labor and employment disputes since 1981 and has presided over more than 6,000 cases in a wide variety of industries in the private and public sectors and serves on over 80 permanent arbitration panels. Jaffe has served on six prior PEBs – PEB 236 (2001), PEB 241 (2007), and PEB 242 (2007), and served as Chair on PEB 243 (2011), PEB 244 (2013), and PEB 250 (2022). Jaffe is a member and former Vice-President of the National Academy of Arbitrators (NAA), served as the National President of the Society of Federal Labor Relations Professionals in 1990, and taught several courses as an Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University Law School. He is a Charter Fellow in the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel and has arbitrated and mediated a wide variety of employee benefits disputes. He is also a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Jaffe received a B.S. from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.
Sidney Moreland, Member, Presidential Emergency Board No. 252
Sidney Moreland has been a professional arbitrator for 40 years, during which he has helped resolve hundreds of civil and labor disputes in all industrial sectors and professional sports. Moreland serves on multiple arbitration rosters and panels including the American Arbitration Association, the National Mediation Board, and the Federal Mediation Conciliation Service. He currently serves as Arbitrator for the National Football League and the Players Association, as well as for Southwest Airlines and multiple Unions serving that airline. Moreland has vast experience on transportation issues presiding over 70 Public Law Boards serving every Class 1 railroad in the United States—a form of tribunal established by the National Mediation Board for the arbitration of disputes between unions, airlines, and rail carriers.
Thomas Pontolillo, Member, Presidential Emergency Board No. 252
Thomas Pontolillo has served as a professional arbitrator since 2022, and has been appointed to the arbitrators’ rosters of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the National Mediation Board. Prior to 2022, Pontolillo served as Assistant to the National President and Director of Research for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, a major railroad labor union. He began his career as a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, working as a locomotive fireman and a locomotive engineer for Penn Central railroad, Consolidated Rail Corporation, and New Jersey Transit Rail Operations.
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