(The following article by Larry King was posted on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on August 25.)
PHILADELPHIA — SEPTA’s engineers and conductors have ratified labor contracts that will help keep the regional rails running for the next four years.
After working without a contract since last summer, members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen this week ratified a five-year deal, retroactive to July 15, 2005. The union represents engineers on SEPTA commuter trains. The contract calls for wage rises totaling 12 percent over the next four years but requires union members, for the first time, to begin contributing 1 percent of their wages toward health-care costs. Last week, members of United Transportation Union Local 61, which represents conductors and assistant conductors on the regional rails, ratified a four-year deal. The contract’s terms were similar to those of the engineers’ agreement, SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said.