Pennsylvania transit bill’s strike provision riles unions

A new proposal to fund transportation projects around Pennsylvania has run into opposition from labor unions angered by a provision that would ban strikes by transit workers without three days' notice.

The provision was prompted by last year's last-minute strike by SEPTA workers just after Philadelphia hosted the World Series.

"It's a direct attack on union members' rights to organize and their freedom to assemble and their right to honor another union's picket line," said Frank Sirianni, president of the Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council. "We will request rank-and-file [members of the legislature] to vote against it."

The transportation-funding bill, sponsored by State Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.), would raise gas taxes, increase motorists' fees, and levy a tax on oil companies' profits.

It would provide about $1.3 billion a year for highways, bridges, and mass-transit projects.

Gov. Rendell called the legislature into special session this year to try to fill a gap of nearly $500 million in the state's transportation budget.

"I recognize how difficult times are, and I don't take lightly the element of taxes . . . but this needs to be addressed, and it has to start now," Evans said Thursday. A failure to act by year's end could mean losing the 2011 construction season, he said.

Evans, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said he will hold hearings on the bill Monday, hoping to get it through both houses of the legislature before lawmakers go home in November.

But leaders of the Republican-controlled Senate said they doubted there was enough time to consider the measure this year.

"We are deeply skeptical that there is time to build the necessary consensus in the legislature - let alone the public - on a large transportation-funding plan this year," said Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware).

The bill would increase the oil company franchise tax by the equivalent of 6.5 cents a gallon at the gas pump, impose an 8 percent tax on the gross profits of oil companies in Pennsylvania, and increase various motorist fees.

The strike-warning provision would impose fines and possible jail terms on union leaders and members who violated the 72-hour requirement.

The controversy over the provision comes days before next Friday's election of officers for Transit Workers Union Local 234, the SEPTA bus drivers' union that went on strike last year. John Johnson Jr. is running against president Willie Brown for calling what he says was an "unnecessary strike."

"The timing is very, very suspect," said Sirianni, who said he was supporting Brown's election.

An aide to Evans scoffed at the suggestion that there was a connection to the Philadelphia transit election.

"If the supporters of Willie Brown think the timing of this is suspect, they have an overinflated opinion of Willie Brown," spokesman Johnna Pro said. "We have a transportation crisis in this commonwealth. We have 30,000 union construction jobs at stake. It certainly isn't about Willie Brown."

The Evans bill would produce an estimated $785 million a year for highways and bridges and $500 million a year for mass transit. That's about $300 million more than Rendell's proposal.

The $472 million shortage in the state's transportation budget was created by a federal rejection of a state plan to place tolls on I-80.

SEPTA stands to lose $110 million a year - about a quarter of its capital budget - if the anticipated money is not replaced. About $350 million a year for highways and bridges is at stake.

About 35 road and bridge projects in Southeastern Pennsylvania, worth $1.5 billion, are in jeopardy because of funding shortfalls, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission says. The projects include work on I-95, the Schuylkill and Vine Street Expressways, and smaller state highways.

More than 20 major SEPTA projects have been put on hold because of the cuts, SEPTA officials said.

And 47 of SEPTA's 341 bridges are in poor condition, including the 115-year-old Crum Creek bridge on the Media-Elwyn line. The bridge needs to be replaced at a cost of $57 million, SEPTA says. Three other century-old bridges that need to be replaced on the Norristown and Chestnut Hill East rail lines and Norristown High Speed Line would cost $27 million.

Contact staff writer Paul Nussbaum at 215-854-4587 or pnussbaum@phillynews.com.