NJ Transit and an engineers’ union appear to be steaming ahead to the first major rail strike in decades starting early Friday, even as both sides convene in Washington, D.C., where they pledged to continue negotiations.

With a strike looming as soon as Friday, officials of NJ Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers met with the National Mediation Board on Monday in Washington. No agreement was reached. NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri thanked the board for convening the meeting in a statement,

A NJ Transit employee is facing criminal charges for allegedly stealing hundreds of phones and reselling them, netting more than $700,000.

The National Mediation Board has called representatives for NJ Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers to a meeting Monday in Washington, D.C., as New Jersey sits on the brink of its first major rail strike in four decades.

A 37-year-old NJ Transit executive has been charged after authorities say he stole $700,000 worth of phones from the agency and then sold them for profit.