Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Negotiations with SEPTA workers stall as strike deadline nears

Members of a union representing almost 5,000 SEPTA bus, trolley, and subway workers warned that a strike would be unavoidable if a new contract agreement were not reached within the next week.

"My members have mandated that at 12:01 (a.m.) we will go on strike," said Willie Brown, president of Transportation Workers United Local 234. "November the first, 12:01, we will be on strike."

Union representatives said they did not meet with SEPTA on Friday or Monday despite the looming deadline.

The union voted unanimously last week to authorize a strike and the strike will go into effect automatically if a new contract agreement isn't reached by midnight Oct. 31. The union also voted to not allow a contract extension if talks stall. Local 234 represents 4,738 operators, mechanics, maintenance custodians, and trade specialists. A strike could bring to a standstill SEPTA's bus, trolley, and subway services.

The union characterized negotiations, which began in earnest last week, as unproductive. A sticking point has been the pension plan for TWU members.

They contribute 3.5 percent of a week's pay to the pension and are vested after five years, SEPTA reported. The plan has a $50,000 compensation cap, which is a major source of workers' ire. Making more than that doesn't result in a larger pension compensation, even though the workers continue to pay the same percentage of their income toward the pension fund, Brown said. Managers and administrators have no caps on their pensions.

Brown said the current pension plan forces workers to subsidize managers' pensions. SEPTA has tried to stabilize pensions recently, increasing employee contributions from 1 percent two years ago to the current 3.5 percent, and removing overtime pay as a factor in pension payments. SEPTA's pension, administered by Public Financial Management, has about $1.1 billion in assets, which covers about 60 percent of its obligations. About $98 million was budgeted to go to the pension in fiscal year 2017.

The discussion over the pension plan ended abruptly Thursday, and the two parties didn't meet Friday, according to union members. The union has a counterproposal and reached out to SEPTA to meet again Monday, said a union spokesman, but got no response as of 4:45 p.m., and the two parties had not met Monday.

Also at issue in the negotiations are health care coverage, wages, and quality-of-life issues. The union has complained about the down time vehicle operators get between driving routes, saying the current breaks aren't long enough to even allow operators to use a restroom.

SEPTA has declined to discuss specifics about the negotiations, saying only that it is  representing the interests of riders and workers. So far, the authority has not released information on alternative travel options in the event of a strike, but said it would provide a transportation plan if a strike appeared imminent.

Local 234 workers haven't had a strike since 2009, when they walked away from work for six days. There was a seven-day strike in 2005.

"We don't want to strike," Brown said, "but don't have any other tools available to us."