A group of unions representing 800 rail workers on the PATH transit system are the last of 23 bargaining groups left to settle with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Officials of the PATH unions said they’ve worked without a new contract for close to 9 years and want a terms similar to what railroad workers on NJ Transit, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro North have agreed to.

The Port Authority wants them to agree to the same contract that Port Authority police and other non-rail unions have agreed to, union officials said.

Port Authority officials said they remain committed to resolving the contracts, but nine of the 10 PATH unions are currently in mediation before the National Mediation Board in Washington.

“We are looking for parity with other railroads. We have always been compared to other (rail) unions when other Port Authority unions had benefits we never got,” said Joseph Dominiczak, a spokesman for the PATH Labor Coalition and a union official.

As of July 19, only one union met with negotiators, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and an offer that was made to that group was worse than previous offers, Dominiczak said.

Port Authority officials said they’ve settled with most of the 23 unions that didn’t have contracts two years ago, and that the PATH unions are the last ones to reach an agreement with.

“We are at the bargaining table with a single goal to reach an agreement,” said Rick Cotton, Port Authority executive director. “We have a framework and a set of proposals that (other) unions found reasonable.”

But the PATH labor coalition officials said those proposals aren’t as good as a June agreement that the Port Authority offered to non-union PATH supervisors.

The last PATH strike was a 12-week job action from June to August 1981.

“We have the power to strike. It’s a nine-month process (before a strike can be authorized),” Dominiczak said.

Under the Railway Labor Act, the federal Mediation Board can ask President Donald Trump to appoint up to two Presidential Emergency Boards to hear the arguments from the unions and management. That board’s report and recommendations could be the basis for an agreement. If both sides can’t reach an agreement, the unions could strike or management could lock them out, after a 90-day cooling-off period.

That process is similar to what NJ Transit rail unions and the agency went through in 2016 that brought the state to a brink of a rail strike. Current NJ Transit contracts go through the end of 2019. The Port Authority is using the same labor attorney as NJ Transit did.

“We asked to go to a Presidential Emergency Board and the Port Authority refused to join us,” Dominiczak said.

Similar to the 2016 NJ Transit negotiations, a main sticking point for PATH are health benefits, co-pays and wages that unions officials said are "substandard” when compared to the railroad industry. A better benefit and compensation package was offered to non-union PATH supervisors, Dominiczak said.

That offer was alluded to by Port Authority Board of Commissioners Chairman Kevin O’Toole, who said officials met with two non-union groups and after competing negotiations, they “got a standing ovation.”

Dominiczak said the unions would be satisfied with a similar agreement to the one offered to the non-union supervisors.

“We are prepared to explore any avenue, that (supervisor’s agreement) may be one,” Cotton said.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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