(The following story by Oliver Prichard, Larry Eichel and Jere Downs appeared on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on April 14.)
PHILADELPHIA — In a move that ended the threat of a transit strike this week, SEPTA and its largest union agreed yesterday to extend their contract talks for 60 days.
With SEPTA and its workers locked in a debate over employee health-care payments and the current contract set to expire at 12:01 a.m. tomorrow, SEPTA accepted a request made by Transit Workers Union Local 234 to extend the contract through June 15.
But transit agency officials insisted that changes to employee health-care plans were a reality that the union, which represents 5,000 workers, must accept.
“We said it this morning, we say it now, we’ll say it June 15th, we’ll say it in September or December: There’s a deal to be done, and they now know what the parameters of the deal are,” SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said in a briefing to reporters at the Wyndham Philadelphia at Franklin Plaza hotel, where the negotiations were held.
“That contract will contain health-care premiums for union members,” Maloney said.
Earlier in the day, Jeff Brooks, president of Local 234, said he had made a written request for the extension.
“I will not be bullied into a decision to go on strike,” Brooks said. “We need time… to explore health-care options and look at proposals.”
Brooks said the union received the first detailed proposal on changes to the health-care plan on Sunday and that there was not time to evaluate and clarify the offer for union members.
“While our local is ordinarily reluctant to seek or grant an extension of this length, in light of the complexity and extent of the issues in these negotiations, I believe that this extension is reasonable and will promote public stability,” Brooks said in his letter.
As both sides negotiated this week, the region was bracing for a possible walkout that would have affected 937,000 riders a day, according SEPTA. Bus, subway and trolley service would have been suspended in Philadelphia, and 19 bus routes in Montgomery and Bucks County would have stopped.
Among those having to seek other means of transportation would have been 39,000 schoolchildren in Philadelphia. Under yesterday’s extension, the academic year for Philadelphia public schools ends at least nine hours before the contract extension is to run out.
As the two sides have considered contract proposals, health-care coverage has been the main point of contention.
SEPTA officials have proposed that workers contribute a monthly health-insurance premium and that future retirees not receive lifetime prescription benefits, as current pensioners do.
But members of TWU Local 234 insist that they have granted enough health-care concessions in past contract negotiations and that management cannot reasonably expect more.
In recent years, skyrocketing health-care costs have become a flashpoint in collective-bargaining agreements across many industries.
SEPTA now pays $969 per employee per month for health coverage, while the national average is $829, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Health-care costs for SEPTA workers have increased 71 percent since 2001, the agency says. Since 1989, TWU members have returned annual cost-of-living increases to management to help pay for medical coverage.