Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s (SEPTA) largest union—Transportation Workers Union (TWU) Local 234 representing more than 5,300 workers—on Oct. 27 voted to authorize a strike, according to local media reports. While the union contract expired at midnight on Nov. 7, SEPTA reported that negotiations will continue Nov. 8 with all transit agency services operating on normal schedules.
“SEPTA is committed to engaging in good-faith negotiations at the bargaining table, with the goal of reaching an agreement that is fair to our hard-working employees and to the customers and taxpayers who fund SEPTA,” the transit agency said in a statement late on Nov. 7.
“We have made some headway toward a fair agreement and decided to continue talking,” TWU Local 234 President Brian Pollitt said Nov. 7, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. “There won’t be a strike tonight.”
TWU workers include bus, trolley, and subway operators, as well as mechanics, cashiers, maintenance workers, and custodians. “SEPTA’s Broad Street and Market-Frankford Lines and its trolley and bus routes in the city would not operate in the event workers walk off the job,” The Inquirer said. “Regional Rail, the Norristown High Speed Line, suburban buses, the Media/Sharon Hill trolley lines and paratransit would continue to operate.”
The union, which “has been working under a one-year contract,” authorized a strike on Oct. 27; but that did not mean the union “would immediately walk off the job,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
According to the newspaper, “[n]egotiations will continue, but [TWU Local 234 President Brian] Pollitt and his team now have the leverage of a potential job action in their pocket if an agreement isn’t reached.”
Pollitt reported Oct. 27 that “safety was the union’s top issue,” according to The Inquirer. “‘We’re looking for safety and security, for our membership and the riding public, and economic justice,’ he said. ‘What they’re offering so far isn’t satisfactory.’”
The strike authorization vote followed Leslie S. Richards’ Oct. 24 announcement that she will step down as SEPTA General Manager and CEO at the end of next month amid a $240 million projected FY 2025 operating deficit for the agency, which could bring service cuts and fare adjustments.
“In bulletins posted to the union’s website, Local 234 said SEPTA wants members to accept a one-year contract with no raises even as the cost of living rises,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. “The two sides have met several times. SEPTA officials have countered that the funding impasse in Harrisburg, ridership declines, and the exhaustion of pandemic assistance funds had left the agency in an impossible position.”
SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch released the following statement to local media, including NBC 10 Philadelphia, on Oct. 27: “SEPTA is in ongoing talks with TWU Local 234 regarding a new contract. We are committed to engaging in good-faith negotiations, with the goal of reaching an agreement that is fair to our hard-working employees and to the customers and taxpayers who fund SEPTA. A major factor in these negotiations is SEPTA’s ongoing funding crisis. With the exhaustion of federal COVID relief funds earlier this year and ridership still recovering from the pandemic, SEPTA is facing an operating budget deficit of nearly a quarter billion dollars annually. We continue to work with the Gov. Shapiro and legislative leaders on sustainable, long-term funding, but at this point, there is no solution in sight. This stark reality impacts these negotiations, as well as SEPTA’s ability to provide critical transportation services throughout the Philadelphia region.”
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, SEPTA and TWU “have been allies in mobilizing political support for more transit funding this fall, but the union has also publicly decried SEPTA’s management team using financial insecurity as a reason not to increase wages.”
The parties avoided a strike last year, and The Inquirer said the one-year contract they reached “raised wages 7% across the board and provided a $3,000 signing bonus to each Local 234 member.” It also reported that “hanging over the final hours of those [contract] talks [in 2023] was the killing of Bernard N. Gribben, a veteran Route 23 bus operator … by a passenger. … The union had pressed for improvements in safety for its members and the public amid a rash of crime and antisocial behavior on the transit system, as well as a big increase in assaults on bus operators during and after the pandemic shutdowns. Addressing personal safety was an animating issue for Local 234 in last year’s negotiations, as much as or more than winning economic gains. The agreement did not include any language on safety but in a side letter, SEPTA pledged to keep working on it. One year later, and despite an overall reduction of crime across the system this year, drivers have continued to face violent assaults. …”
