(The following article by Jere Downs was posted on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on June 15.)
PHILADELPHIA — A city-paralyzing transit strike was averted yesterday as SEPTA and officials from its largest union said buses and trains would keep running after midnight but clashed on how long to continue talks.
It seemed likely yesterday that members of Transport Workers Union Local 234 would stay on the job day to day and perhaps through Sept. 5. That is when a third contract extension sought by the union would end. The union rebuffed a SEPTA proposal to prolong negotiations through January.
SEPTA’s contract with TWU Local 234 expired at 12:01 a.m. today. The estimated 5,000 union members operate bus, trolley and subway service in Philadelphia and its suburbs. Regional Rail service would be unaffected by a work stoppage.
“We are going to continue to move Philadelphia at 12:02 a.m. tomorrow,” union president Jeff Brooks said yesterday. “This is not about a strike. This is about getting a contract. We will continue to negotiate until we see skeletons across the table.”
SEPTA, which is seeking monthly health-care contributions from veteran transit operators, mechanics and cashiers, has no plans to lock workers out, transit agency chief negotiator Patrick Battel said.
A lockout “is not going to happen,” Battel said as he emerged from a half-hour meeting at the union’s headquarters at 23d and Spring Garden Streets.
Without a signed extension in place, Brooks nonetheless pledged yesterday to stay on the job.
“We are committed to negotiating… not to being on strike,” Brooks wrote in a letter to Battel yesterday. “The ground between us continues to narrow and we will be available throughout the summer to negotiate with you.”
Noting that Philadelphia public school students return from summer break Sept. 6, Battel said SEPTA opposes Sept. 5 as a new strike deadline.
An estimated 33,000 Philadelphia public high school students alone commute on SEPTA, Philadelphia School District spokesman Fernando Gallard said. Many families of the 205,000 schoolchildren in the district also depend on SEPTA.
“We don’t want to align with the union on that date to hold a gun to the region’s head,” Battel said. “SEPTA cannot live with that.”
Gov. Rendell began the process last week to fill the $92 million gap in SEPTA’s $952 million fiscal 2006 budget with state road funds. The legislature has yet to permanently increase transit funding.
Extending talks though January would allow time for the union and SEPTA to negotiate while legislators weigh the issue.
Such an extension would also get approximately 700,000 transit riders and the region “through a semester of school, the Christmas holidays, and hopefully another Eagles championship season without the looming threat of a transit strike,” Battel said.
Watching Brooks speak at a union rally outside City Hall yesterday, SEPTA cashier William Clay said he had no desire to go on strike. Clay, 49, recalled struggling through the last strike in 1998, which ran for 40 days.
“We made it through,” Clay said. “I don’t want to do it again.”
Enduring the midday heat while he watched the rally, construction worker Troy Smith mopped his head with a green washcloth.
“It is not the workers’ fault. You cannot knock them for trying to hang on to their health care,” Smith, 27, of West Oak Lane, said. “They will get what they want, eventually, and fares will go up 50 cents. This is just part of the game.”