Editorial: Detour transit strikes

The SEPTA strike that ended yesterday wasn't worth holding a city and a region hostage.

For six days, Transport Workers Union Local 234 threw the commuting public into turmoil. And when the strike ended, the union accepted an offer that was much like the one it had walked away from last week - an overly generous deal in tough economic times.

The union's 5,000 drivers and mechanics will receive bonuses of $1,250 just for ratifying the new contract, plus 11.5 percent in raises over the next five years. The leadership of Local 234 held out for better work rules and slightly enhanced pensions.

SEPTA employees felt justified in striking, but they must know that the people who depend on them to get to work and school don't share that view. The public is especially resentful because Local 234 used commuters as pawns, once again, in a game that the union feels it can't lose. Resentful or not, many commuters need mass transit.

But the union did lose, big time, in the court of public opinion. Does the union care? The public already knows the answer to that - an answer that was delivered at 3 a.m. Nov. 3 without warning when Local 234 shut down all buses, trains, and trolleys in the city. It was no way to treat the customers who pay their salaries.

So great is the union's leverage in these periodic walkouts that some have suggested SEPTA and its unions should agree to binding arbitration. SEPTA has resisted, but this option should at least be explored. The cumulative impact of transit strikes has dealt another blow to the region's reputation as a reliable place to do business, especially when 39 other states have outlawed strikes by public-sector employees.

Now that Local 234 has secured such a good deal, there's concern that the city's municipal unions will demand the same in contract negotiations with Mayor Nutter. But the SEPTA deal shouldn't have any bearing on those talks.

The two situations involve different pots of money. SEPTA's financial picture has improved, at least temporarily, because of enhanced state funding approved in 2007. The transit agency receives very little money from the city, deriving the vast majority of its funding from the state and from fares.

Meanwhile, the city's fiscal outlook is still grim. Nutter needed last-minute approval from the state to raise the city's sales tax and avoid deeper budget cuts. It was a deal intended to keep the city afloat and preserve jobs, not to hand out signing bonuses and generous raises.

Gov. Rendell and Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa.) deserve credit for acting as go-betweens in the SEPTA strike and working to resolve the crisis. As bad as the walkout was, their efforts helped to prevent it from turning into a long-term commuter nightmare.

Comments

Posted 07:16 AM, 11/10/2009

Cat

PA MUST outlaw strikes by public-sector employees

Comment removed.

Posted 08:46 AM, 11/10/2009

p.e.poole

Bob Brady and Gov Rendell sold out the taxpaying public once again. It is a conflict of interest for any Democrat politician to "negotiate" a deal when they depend heavily on union support for their political survival.

Posted 08:53 AM, 11/10/2009

longshanks

Eliminate unions.

Posted 09:08 AM, 11/10/2009

Joshua911

What message does a public sector strike send to companies thinking about locating inside Philadelphia?

Posted 09:57 AM, 11/10/2009

chrissmith

PA must follow the 39 other states that ban public sector union strikes.

Posted 10:15 AM, 11/10/2009

jfar86

Brady and Rendell deserve no credit whatsoever. They have no backbone, and just caved to SEPTA's demands. Rendell should have pulled the state money immediately once the union went on strike, and should have continued pulling state funding as the strike continued. Brown is an uneducated thug who seemingly called a strike because he felt slighted. SEPTA should absolutely be prohibited from striking by law. You cannot allow one of the largest cities in the country to be held hostage by somebody like Brown.

Posted 01:28 PM, 11/10/2009

Sam D

"Local 234 used commuters as pawns..." Can't the same be said about SEPTA? Additionally, why is that pension fund so secret that only SEPTA is allowed to audit it?

Posted 02:00 PM, 11/10/2009

intelliwoman

Ban public sector strikes And if the city were to collect a small portion of the millions of $$$ in real estate taxes owed (SEPTA being the biggest offender)the fiscal picture would be better - there are companies, developers and individuals who have not paid taxes FOR YEARS.

Posted 11:09 PM, 11/10/2009

catnameddomino

I still think that SEPTA should have just kept making new offers to the union, but just reduced the amount each day. I would have loved to see how long Brown would have held out then for his great workers.

Posted 11:39 PM, 11/10/2009

jross

I'm not trying to say that Philly unions are perfect but the right to collective bargaining is one of the cornerstones of real democracy. The strike coverage in the local media has been some of the most shameful, unbalanced journalism I've seen in a long time. Through the whole thing there were almost no interviews with strikers or TWU rank-and-file, no looks into their complaints, and no critical questions thrown at SEPTA management. The media outlets knew the story they wanted to tell about greedy unions attacking commuters and that's what they ran with... regardless of the actual facts. I ride two trains and a bus every day to my job, and as difficult as the strike made my life, I still back TWU's right to fight for the best deal they can get.