New Jersey Transit and its train engineers will head to Washington, D.C., on Monday to meet with a federal mediation board in hopes of averting a rail shutdown.

Engineers could strike on May 16 and stop all commuter train service.

On Friday, both sides spoke publicly about negotiations, which are stuck on annual wages for engineers.

The head of New Jersey Transit says he believes the union wants to strike, while the union is saying that NJ Transit refuses to bargain in good faith.

Tom Haas, chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, says he has a message for the hundreds of thousands of commuters who depend on NJ Transit.

“We have sought nothing more than equal pay for equal work,” he says.

Haas was with Mark Wallace, the national president of the BLET, to emphasize their point that engineers who earn $113,000 a year in salary haven’t had a raise since 2019. They say that they’re looking for parity with the LIRR and Amtrak.

NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri went on the offensive Friday. Kolluri reminded Haas that there was a deal in April, but the membership voted it down.

“I made a deal in good faith, they can’t come back and say, ‘Now we want more than what we started with’ when the negotiation started, said Kolluri. “We are about to spend $4 million a day. That is the number that is coming off their contract every day they’re on strike.”

The two sides have clashed over numbers. NJ Transit says engineers on average earn $135,000. The agency says it is offering a deal that would pay engineers $172,000 a year by 2027.

The union is now playing a TV ad critical of NJ Transit spending $ 53 million in furniture for a new headquarters in Newark.

Contract negotiations will pick up in Washington, D.C. on Monday as both sides have been called by the National Mediation Board to meet.