PHILADELPHIA — A potential strike against the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has been placed on hold by Transit Workers Union local 234 after the two sides reported progress at the bargaining table before a midnight Thursday/Friday strike deadline.
“We’re willing to go the extra mile and grant additional time to reach a fair agreement,” Local 234 President Pollitt said in a statement on the union’s website. “However, let me be clear: if SEPTA’s managers fail to meet our demands, we will be on the picket line.”
The union, which represents more than 5,000 subway, bus, and trolley operators, as well as mechanics and other workers, voted to strike on Oct. 27 [see “Transit Workers Union authorizes strike …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 28, 2024]. The union is working under a one-year deal reached just ahead of a strike deadline last year.
A SEPTA spokesman said the agency remains committed to “reaching an agreement that is fair to our hard-working employees and to the customers and taxpayers who fund SEPTA.”
Meanwhile, suburban SEPTA workers also have voted to authorize a strike, WPVI-TV reports. The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division (SMART-TD) Local 1594 represents more than 350 bus, trolley, and train operators. The local’s general chairman, Anthony Petty, told the station safety is a top concern.
“Operators have spoken out and they have said that they are tired of being assaulted,” Petty said. “They just want to go home the same way they com to work.”
The Local 1594 contract expires Nov. 18.
Is the DA actually prosecuting those crimes? Just curious.
The City Union is the ex-PTC Union; the Suburban is the ex-Red Arrow Union.
There have been shootings on SEPTA vehicles and passengers have been wounded. Vehicle Operators DO care if their passengers are wounded but they also, as the uniformed authority figure aboard, they don’t want to be shot either. The red Arrow people have also seen violence but 69th St Terminal has become a haven for homeless people.
Cost of Living increases are on the block too.