Talks resume between SEPTA, transit police

SEPTA transit police officers were back at the bargaining table late Thursday afternoon, a few hours after the union's strike passed the 24-hour mark.

Union spokesman Anthony Ingargiola confirmed the meeting was taking place, but would not say where. As of 5:30 p.m., there was no word of any developments.

Earlier Thursday, SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams had expressed hope that the two sides would reopen negotiations.

"We're sitting at the negotiation table, waiting," she said.

About 200 members of the Fraternal Order of Transit Police, Local 30, walked off the job at 2 p.m. Wednesday. The union, which has been working without a contract for a year, is demanding a 50-cent-an-hour pay raise.

City officials and Septa quickly created a makeshift security force. Philadelphia Police officers were hired by SEPTA to work overtime and stationed from 2 to 6 p.m. at 24 stations along Broad Street and at Market-Frankford El lines identified as "critical sites" because of school dismissals and rush-hour volume. Police also will make spot checks on buses and at stations.

The security firm AlliedBarton is providing 40 guards to staff certain locations, and about 45 supervisory officers who are not on strike will work extended shifts.

Mayor Nutter said on Thursday that the city was prepared to handle the strike, but noted that it came just days after a SEPTA bus driver was pulled off his bus and beaten by a group of teens in Southwest Philadelphia.

"It is unfortunate that SEPTA police are out on a job action in light of what happened to one of their colleagues this past Saturday," Nutter said.

Nutter also lamented the lack of advance notice from the union in calling the strike.

"The riding public and all of us deserve much better than that," he said.

SEPTA has said it was given 20 minutes' notice, which the union has disputed.

Ingargiola has said the union's sticking point is a demand for the pay raise, based on the officers' police certification, that would cost SEPTA about $200,000 a year. The two sides already had agreed to an 11.5 percent general pay increase over the five years of the next contract, Ingargiola said.

SEPTA representatives have said the union's demands are out of line with agreements the agency had made with other unions.

As of Thursday evening, there had been no major problems on SEPTA's trains, buses or subways, Williams said. A portion of the Broad St. line near City Hall was shut down briefly around 4 p.m. when Philadelphia police officers chased a man into the tracks. A gun was eventually recovered and the tracks reopened about 20 minutes later.

"The police handled it as smoothly as they would have before or after the strike," she said.