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Friday, November 6, 2009
Will City Go To Court To Get SEPTA Back to Work?

Mayor Nutter today said the city is reviewing whether it could seek an injunction to send striking SEPTA employees back to work.

“The standards for an injunction, based on previous court rulings are fairly high and fairly specific,” Nutter said. “We’ve been monitoring all the elements of the strike since Tuesday. But ultimately that’s a legal matter and a legal decision based on those standards.”

Nutter said the city was particularly concerned about the public health impact of the strike, given the public health emergency declared to deal with the H1N1 flu.

“The city solicitor, the law department, all of our public safety areas and public health areas have been monitoring the impact of the strike from, not just an inconvenience standpoint, but from a true impact of people trying to get to their doctor or to their hospital,” Nutter said. “There is a health emergency that was declared by the city and the state related to H1N1 and we’re very concerned that medical care may not be provided.”

But Nutter did not provide a time frame for the decision, saying it would depend on when the city met the necessary criteria.

“It’s a fact based decision. If you look at the rulings from the past, there are a series of factors you have to take into consideration,” Nutter said. “It’s not something to make a decision on today or at any moment. If you’re going to go, you should go with the best facts and the best case available.”

UPDATE, 11:55 a.m.: We just spoke with City Solicitor Shelley Smith, who made clear that the city does not plan to go to court right away. She said that to get an injunction, the city would have to show "clear and present danger to the health, safety and welfare of the public."

To show that, Smith said, the city would need to provide the court with witnesses who could testify that they could not get health care or access emergency services because of the strike. So far, they have no such examples.

"We've been monitoring for that kind of evidence and we have none," Smith said, noting that it will take more time and data collection for the city to know if they can go to court.

Posted by Catherine Lucey @ 11:22 AM  Permalink | 19 comments
Comments   
Posted 11:52 AM, 11/06/2009
PJJ
Good luck with that Little Ceaser
Posted 11:55 AM, 11/06/2009
nolibsgal
The city should consider putting a moratorium on parking tickets during the strike and relaxing parking restrictions all over the city. It could also put school buses into circulation after the kids are in school. Mayor Nutter should also lobby the Legislature to change the law and prevent transit employees from striking. They provide an essential service, just like police and fire.
Posted 12:03 PM, 11/06/2009
CleanupPhilly
Bravo to Lucey for covering that the city has rights, legal rights, and that case law and legislation outline what this is. The taxpayer and the rider have the right not to be shut down over the smallest set of terms, just as with the Air Traffic Controllers. Reagan held that the needs of the economy were too great to be impaired over the small set of demands remaining of the few. The courts agreed that at-will termination is legal if there is no contract, the best contract possible was refused, and negotiations are no longer productive. Septa may go to at-will employer status, the union members who wish to go back to work may file a petition to remove the TWU with the NLRB, see: http://www.nlrb.gov/ and there are other options.
Posted 12:08 PM, 11/06/2009
CleanupPhilly
It is possible for journalists to interview non union attorneys to ask what those criteria are. You can even ask your in house attorneys to review case law. What is it? Do you have to wait for a press release from Nutter, all you other DN and Ink writers? I frankly think that it's too late for an injunction to send TWU back to work because they've poisoned the well so severely. They are just going to be effective employees who work with management. Septa has the right to invoke it's legitimate at-will status. Brown will claim racial discrimination, and will lose. It's cheaper to hire replacements who do the job and settle lawsuits.
Posted 12:10 PM, 11/06/2009
concerns25
The City will not exercise options nor will Septa, for everyday the workers are out, Septa saves money and the members lose money except for the union stipend fund for picketing this goes into effect after one week of strike. The Democratic machine is in charge of the unions, that is why Brady is there, his deal is to make everyone suffer and cut a deal in the union's favor so they can negotiate big deals with the union contracts coming up. Amazing how council is quiet except for a small meeting yesterday. Rendell is a lame duck so he hasn't the clout to move anything but State government can pull the funds ($6 million) and then they will have to renegotiate without those funds. He doesn't have the guts. Brown is up for re-election in 10 months and is trying to look good to his members at everyone's expense. Politics as usual, when will Philadelphians vote for some other party any party to get these crooks out.
Posted 12:13 PM, 11/06/2009
CleanupPhilly
PJJ, you might want to try and crack open a dictionary and figure out how to spell "Caesar." Then you might want to look up "ignoramus," and "demagogue," and then wiki "Jabba the Hutt."
Posted 12:13 PM, 11/06/2009
Vasily
I agree with CleanupPhilly. Why hasn't the DN or the Inq already found out what those qualifiers are. Specifically. If people knew exactly what they needed to show the city to get the city to sue the union, they'd be out doing it. Step up, media. Isn't your role to educate the public?
Posted 12:14 PM, 11/06/2009
CleanupPhilly
TWU, sorry, meant to type CANNOT be effective employees now. They've poisoned the well too severely, and the only option for Septa that works for riders and taxpayers it at-will employment, and yes, management does have that right.
Posted 12:23 PM, 11/06/2009
CleanupPhilly
Why won't the two papers cover both sides richly, in depth, and avoid the problem when you let Brady, Rendell, and Brown be your mouthpiece of printing frank falsehoods? Brady said a solution is near, and they struck. Rendell said he would NOT use economic development money (Nussbaum), and I believe Rendell can't let Septa use econ dev money for operating costs, but did the press investigate that? Of course not. They said this "sweetener" was cause to believe the strike was almost over. Brown said he would not strike if Rendell was involved (Caparella) and what did Brown do? Struck in the middle of the night, possibly an illegal wildcat strike. Did the paper cover the legality of striking like that? Of course not. No Democrat put it in their press release. The press has already concluded that a same day investigation of the R5 rail car-B-que is sufficient, the death of a rail worker is fully accidental and there is no need to ask questions, and the potential for industrial sabotage is not a matter of curiously for them. Which writers be serious? That's who'll stay when the lenders take over. The truth is that people think this has been a dirty strike start to finish with illegal blocking of operating transit, that the strike was called frivolously in a gray manner that would likely not survive a court challenge, and that there are at-will procedures that Septa can invoke now. Injunctions are the very least of it.
Posted 12:27 PM, 11/06/2009
CleanupPhilly
The future of Philly is at stake. Will the city be held hostage by uneducated thugs who think they should be paid like they have a college degree when they can't compete in a marketplace and know it, who's best recourse has been to be bullies? Is that who should be rewarded? Then don't wonder why Philly is full of crime, drugs, and corruption, to remain backwards, to produce a whole new generation of kids who go straight from bad public schools to the streets to prison. This is the mentality of "I can do what I want and you just have to deal with and give me what I tell you." I'm not keen on the Democrats rewarding this strong arm robbery, covering for it, and the papers playing along because they are members of union too.
Posted 12:29 PM, 11/06/2009
CleanupPhilly
I want to see an independent press that asks obvious questions and gets answers and isn't led around by the nose ring by the Democrats.
Posted 12:33 PM, 11/06/2009
nowyouknow
The article states in order for the city to get an injunction the city would have to have real examples of people not being able to get health care because of the strike and so far they have none. WHAT????? There were plenty of people I saw on TV news programs saying they couldn't make doctor appointments because of the strike. I'm sure they'd be more than willing to testify how the strike prevented them from getting healthcare. The city should use the H1N1 epidemic to their advantage. What are they waiting for?
Posted 12:54 PM, 11/06/2009
fixgovernment
The idea that "The city should consider putting a moratorium on parking tickets during the strike and relaxing parking restrictions all over the city", is terrible. If anything there should be more enforcement of parking violations during the strike, especially in key areas like Broad Street, where a car was parked illegally on North Broad near route 1 for three days this week. Illegally parked cars can severely negatively impact traffic.
Posted 01:09 PM, 11/06/2009
James
If the union is beyond reasoning with, the judge can issue an injunction ordering workers back to work and order both sides to go to binding arbitration. Example of this is the 1994 baseball strike that cancelled the World Series, judge in April 1995 ordered players to go back to work and binding arbitration.
Posted 01:16 PM, 11/06/2009
concerns25
They cannot order binding arbitration without the injunction, the city has to prove health or safety issues to get the injunction. Should be easy, packed trains, H1N1 breeding ground. Over crowding can cause injuries if the train is in an accident.
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About Chris Brennan and Catherine Lucey
PhillyClout
Chris Brennan, a native Philadelphian and graduate of Temple University, joined the Daily News in 1999. He has written about SEPTA, the Philadelphia School District, the legalization of casino gambling, state government, the mayor, the governor, City Council and political campaigns.

Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002. Since then she has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. For the past two years, she covered the 2007 mayoral election. Now that the battle is over, she has moved down to the City Hall bureau where she will report on the Nutter administration.

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