Christine M. Flowers: SEPTA union strikes below the belt

MY FIRST thought after hearing that SEPTA had gone on strike in the wee hours of Tuesday morning was to wonder if there was space available under the Meadowlands for Willie Brown and his crew. After all, Jimmy Hoffa must get lonely.

Then I realized how silly that was. Brown is still alive and kicking, unlike Hoffa, who's been pushing up daisies since well before Joe "Slippery Fingers" Pisarcik's infamous fumble in '78.

In fact, you could say that Brown and his aggrieved SEPTA workers are busy kicking me and hundreds of thousands of other Philly commuters directly in our civic . . . assets.

Perhaps I'm being too hard on them. On Wednesday morning, after unsuccessfully attempting to corral a cab, I took a leisurely 30-block stroll from Center City to my office and had an opportunity to appreciate some of the finer points of the city. Who knew there were 375 funeral parlors, 150 Crown Chicken outlets and 435 chiropractors between Chestnut and Oregon? The things you miss when you travel underground.

Sarcasm aside (couldn't tell, could you?), the actions by the Transport Workers Union Local 234 have confirmed my low opinion of unions in general, and this union in particular.

And please spare me the lectures on how this country was built by union blood, sweat and tears. Don't conjure up tales about the coal miners and steelworkers and bricklayers who married our grandmothers and turned a fledgling nation into a world power. I'm fully aware that once upon a time, unions were the only thing protecting the proletariat against the robber barons, balancing the scales of economic and social justice.

But that was then. And this is now.

Any attempt by TWU members to try to make us feel sorry for their plight is an insult to those of us who actually read the papers. Union workers average $52,000 a year. That's $1,000 a week. Nice paycheck.

But not for Brown. He's not satisfied with an 11.5 percent hike over the five-year contract, and is also seeking significant concessions from management on pension contributions and other benefits.

Even in normal times, the package that SEPTA workers have is a good one. In this depressed economy, with people looking for whatever work they can get and juggling two or more jobs, it's a blessing. So for the TWU to petulantly stamp its collective foot and demand even more when the city and the state are making drastic cuts (and SEPTA is suffering substantial losses in revenue) seems a bit, well, breathtakingly selfish.

I've lived in and around this city for 47 years. The number of hours I've spent on buses, trains and subways is incalculable. And having lived in Paris and Rome, I see the flaws in our own system but realize that a city is only as great as its public transit. I believe in SEPTA, and normally appreciate the men and women who make it run.

But there's no excuse for the brazen disrespect shown to the people who depend on the system to get to work, school and their medical appointments.

Brown and his minions may try to portray their stand as a valiant struggle between David and Goliath, but this is as false a claim as any suggestion that Michael Untermeyer had an ice cube's chance in hell of being elected D.A.

The people that TWU Local 234 is fighting are the students who can't make it to class. The health workers who miss their shifts, burdening the already burdened. The child-care attendants stranded at home and the parents who, because no one is there to watch their kids, are also forced to forfeit a day's pay.

I'D LIKE TO think that the union doesn't realize the cruel domino effect its actions have on average Philadelphians, the ones who can't afford car payments, gas and insurance but can eke out enough pocket change to buy some tokens or a TransPass. That, however, would be an insult to the intelligence of its members.

Anyone with eyes and ears understands what's going on in this country. People are suffering, some a great deal, others less, but all to some degree. While SEPTA management isn't blameless (they shouldn't have let it get to this point since, after all, the contract expired almost eight months ago), the real villains in this scenario are the men and women who decided that their own outrageous demands took precedence over the common good.

I thought unions were designed to protect the working stiff.

Instead, they're doing the stiffing.

Christine M. Flowers is a lawyer.

E-mail cflowers1961@yahoo.com.