(The following story by Dwight Ott and Ashwin P. Verghese appeared on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on June 16.)
PHILADELPHIA — SEPTA transit officers returned to work at 7 a.m. yesterday after reaching a tentative agreement with the city late Friday, just hours after their strike began.
The deal came as SEPTA and the officers’ union met with Mayor Nutter in his City Hall office. Also there were U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa.), who had brokered past agreements between SEPTA and its unions; City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr.; and State Rep. Tony J. Payton Jr. (D., Phila.), who is on the House Transportation Committee.
The talks began about 8 p.m. and ended around midnight, said Anthony Ingargiola, spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Transit Police.
A formal announcement of the agreement is expected tomorrow, he said, with a ratification vote by the 200 union members on Thursday.
The parties would not go into specifics about the agreement.
“We’re in continual conversation with SEPTA manager Joe Casey, trying to work out logistics,” Nutter said.
He added that it had been imperative to get a deal done as quickly as possible.
“I did not want this to extend into the workweek,” Nutter said.
The transit officers walked out around 3:15 p.m. Friday. They were seeking pay comparable to that of Philadelphia police officers.