Commuters continue to suffer from an ongoing labor strike between Philadelphia’s public transportation workers and the city’s transit authority.
After their contract with Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) expired Monday at midnight, approximately 4,700 workers, represented by Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 234, immediately went on strike.
The walk-out threw a proverbial wrench into the transportation network of the nation’s fifth largest city, and forced hundreds of thousands of Philadelphia-area commuters to find alternative methods of transportation.
The strike is a result of failed negotiations over wages, pensions, healthcare and working conditions. SEPTA’s board publicly released a portion of its new offer, and the two sides traded jabs in public statements. SEPTA offered to raise average pay (with overtime) from $68,100 to $76,200 by 2021, according to local media, something the union does not specifically oppose. The union does take issue with the current pension cap, which limits employee pensions at $30,000 a year. The transit authority is offering to remove the cap, along with an eight percent increase in pension benefits.
Another area of contention is SEPTA’s new healthcare proposal, which would increase union worker monthly payments from $46 a month to $164 a month. The union objected to the healthcare proposal, releasing a statement, which says, among other things, “We won’t apologize for trying to maintain quality affordable healthcare for our members and their families.”
Transit workers, especially bus drivers, are also asking for longer breaks and access to restrooms along routes.“We’re out here 12 hours a day and we’re going up and down the street and there’s no restrooms on the routes that we have,” Karen, a TWU bus driver, told PlanPhilly.
The ongoing strike is being led by Willie Brown, President of TWU Local 234, who once told a Philadelphia magazine that he always wanted to be a union president. “When I was a little boy, a guy took me to a union function; it was a Christmas party. From that point forward, I wanted to be in a union,” Brown told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2014. The trolley operator and ardent defender of SEPTA’s bus, train and trolley workers may have to start weighing the political implications of the strike continuing into next week.
Election Day, just four days away, has the potential to significantly impact the negotiations. If the strike enters next week, it may have massive implications for voter turnout in Pennsylvania’s largest metropolitan area. If disgruntled commuters and upset business owners aren’t enough, political pressure to reach an agreement may be sufficient to close a deal. (RELATED: Will Philadelphia’s Transit Strike Doom Hillary?)
SEPTA said that it would file an emergency injunction to force employees to work Tuesday if the strike continues into next week, but it is unclear if an injunction has been filed as of Friday morning.
A ripple effect of the ongoing walk-out is the increased use of taxis and ride-sharing services. UberX and UberPool, which allows passengers to carpool with others and split the pricing, reported a 41 percent increase in rush-hour passengers Tuesday compared with a week earlier. Lyft reported a 46 percent increase in rides Tuesday compared with Monday, the last day that SEPTA employees were on the job.
The ride-sharing services increase their prices according to demand, and unfortunately for commuters, the surge in demand meant a surge in price.
Because of the #septastrike, Uber rates were up 450% after the Louis CK show let out last night. Resolve this now!
— Lindsay (@LinzS84) November 4, 2016
Rumors swirled in local Philadelphia bars that suggested SEPTA’s board is holding out on an agreement in order to allow a local official or “some big wig” to come in and score some political points before Tuesday’s election. The Daily Caller News Foundation could not substantiate those rumors, but the existence of such rumors highlights deep distrust between employees and SEPTA’s board.
While national interest in the ongoing strike may be focused on its implications for the 2016 presidential race, local commuters will have to continue to find alternative methods of transportation.
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