SEPTA accord falls apart

A tentative agreement to end the strike by SEPTA workers collapsed in acrimony yesterday, leaving prospects slim for a quick resolution to the six-day walkout.

Gov. Rendell, who tried to broker a settlement, blamed the leadership of Transport Workers Union Local 234 for the breakdown and called for a direct vote by union members on the proposed contact. If such a vote isn't taken by tomorrow, the governor said, he will withdraw nearly $7 million in state funding offered to pay for worker bonuses.

Local 234 president Willie Brown said the union's constitution did not permit a direct membership vote on a contract that the union's executive committee had rejected.

"We're not going to take it to a vote," he said. "For the same reason the president of the United States would not bypass Congress and go directly to the people." He dismissed Rendell's demand as an effort to divide the union.

Referring to Rendell's vow to withdraw the state funding, Brown said, "I am not for sale."

At a news conference last night, Rendell, joined by Mayor Nutter, SEPTA board chairman Pasquale T. "Pat" Deon, and other SEPTA officials, said he would no longer act as an intermediary in the negotiations.

"I'm out," he said emphatically. "I have a state to run."

Rendell, who described himself as "entirely frustrated," called the failure to reach an agreement "nuts," and said he had "never seen anything like it in 32 years in government."

Nutter echoed Rendell's call for a vote on the proposed contract: "I agree with the governor - the members would vote for this deal. It's a good deal."

Rendell said the union made new demands yesterday after a handshake agreement with U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa.) was announced Friday. The new requests included an independent audit of the SEPTA pension plan, which the union says is underfunded and mismanaged.

"If we're going to pay more in, we have to be confident with where the money is going," Brown said last night at his own quickly called news conference. He said the union wanted a forensic audit rather than the less-comprehensive audit that SEPTA offered.

No new contract negotiations were scheduled, and the acrimonious end of the near-deal leaves SEPTA riders with little reason to expect that buses, subways, and trolleys will run again soon.

When Rendell and Brady announced a tentative settlement late Friday, they predicted service could be restored by last night.

But yesterday Brown predicted a long strike.

Unless SEPTA yields on the audit and on a provision regarding possible future health-care costs, Brown said, "I guess we will be here for a while."

The proposed five-year contract would have provided a $1,250 bonus upon ratification, a 2.5 percent raise in the second year, and a 3 percent raise in each of the final three years. It would have increased workers' contributions to the pension fund from the current 2 percent to 3.5 percent and would have increased the maximum pension to $30,000 a year from the current $27,000.

The union, which represents about 5,100 bus drivers, subway and trolley operators, and mechanics making an average of about $52,000 a year, went on strike at 3 a.m. Tuesday.

Efforts to reach a final settlement fell apart around midday yesterday.

Brown said that he had agreed to a settlement only in principle and that late "smoothing" by SEPTA of financial details had upended the deal. Rendell and SEPTA officials said the union at the last minute had asked for nine changes in the proposed agreement that would have increased costs by $7 million.

SEPTA agreed to one change: extending the period over which workers' pension contributions would be increased. And the union eventually withdrew six other proposals, Rendell said.

But the two remaining differences torpedoed the deal, Rendell said. One was the forensic-audit request. The other was the union's rejection of a SEPTA request to revisit health-care provisions in the contract if national health-care legislation increases the agency's costs.

The pension audit is the biggest obstacle.

"I asked for one thing that blew this thing up," Brown said yesterday. "We are willing to pay for a forensic audit. What are they afraid of?"

The union has made the health of the pension fund a central issue in the strike. The SEPTA pension fund for TWU workers is funded at about 53 percent of total liabilities, compared with 65 percent for the SEPTA managers' pension fund.

Union leaders have said the fund has been mismanaged and underfunded for years and is at risk of not being able to meet its obligated pension payouts in the future. SEPTA officials say the fund is sound and has always met its pension obligations.

SEPTA officials said the union was already involved in management of the fund, as it has two representatives on the eight-member board that oversees the fund. Brown said the members were not permitted to vote; SEPTA said they were allowed to.

SEPTA general manager Joseph Casey called the pension audit request a red herring. He said all the pension board members, including the union representatives, had access to an independent annual audit by national actuarial firm Milliman Inc.

Brady said the union's audit demand "is just purely the trust factor."

"They don't trust SEPTA on this," he said, adding that he was disappointed the deal broke down but would keep working to resolve the matter. "It's a shame. It's just a shame."

Some participants in the talks said yesterday that the union's executive committee appeared divided and that former local president Jeff Brooks, now an official in the union's international leadership, had taken the lead from Brown in the bargaining.

Rendell said Brooks had replaced Brown as the union's chief voice yesterday.

"It's very curious that Willie disappeared after being the point person for so long," Rendell said yesterday. He said that he had asked Brooks about the Friday-night deal and that Brooks had replied, "I wasn't there."

"There's clearly a division within the union leadership and the president about what's going on," SEPTA board member Thomas J. Ellis said. "Right now, we're not sure who's in charge."

Brown, flanked by the executive committee members at his news conference, dismissed that assertion as "the oldest trick in the book. . . . They're trying to divide and conquer."

"Jeff Brooks is a good friend of mine. If he could get us a contract, great. . . . We are not divided," Brown said. Of dissension within the union, he said, "I know there are people who disagree with me, but that's democracy."

He said he had received calls from many TWU members urging him to "stay strong. We got you."