City Council reconsiders its role as SEPTA talks falter

and Lindsay Faber City Council members came dangerously close yesterday to playing semi-negotiators in the bitter contract talks between SEPTA and its union. And that is exactly what Council President John Street said he wanted to avoid. In a special afternoon session of Council yesterday at City Hall, Council members grilled SEPTA's chief strategist David L. Cohen over the breakdown in negotiations between the nation's fifth-largest transit agency and its 5,300-member union. The threat of a strike still hangs over the negotiations, but city buses, trolleys and subways are expected to run as usual today. A strike by the union would shut down those forms of transportation in the city, although regional rail lines would remain unaffected. Earlier yesterday, Transport Workers Union Local 234 members clad in the union's black and gold colors blasted Cohen at an impromptu "presentation" to Council. Also yesterday afternoon, approximately 300 screaming union members gathered for a rally outside SEPTA headquarters at 12th and Market streets to show support for the workers' rights and encourage them to refuse to rest until a fair settlement was reached. Council announced last week that it would not interrupt the course of the city transit negotiations, but members at yesterday morning's presentation hardly remained neutral. "I do not want to get into any form of debate or negotiations," Street said before thanking union members for continuing to work. A few minutes later, however, Street joined the pro-union tirade, suggesting that Council get a response about "SEPTA trying to eliminate its union." TWU President Steve Brookens then ascended a podium to the applause of about 50 union members, emphasizing to Council that no progress had been made on the issues of pension, workers compensation and health benefits for the union. The possibility that Council could intervene was broached at the afternoon session by Councilman David Cohen -- who is not related to SEPTA's Cohen. SEPTA is engaging in "union busting" and is "not negotiating in good faith at all," Councilman Cohen said. Given a chance to respond before Council yesterday afternoon, SEPTA's Cohen, former chief of staff to Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, agreed that negotiations had bogged down. But while he was willing to elaborate on some issues, Cohen refused to rebut hostile lines of questioning, asserting time and again that he was "not going to negotiate this contract in public." It was Cohen's intransigence on this point that led a frustrated Council to explain its rationale for the possibility of taking a stronger role in the negotiations. "We have a responsibility to deal with [the strike]," Councilman Cohen said. "And we can't deal with it if you're not going to tell us about it." "We need to decide whether or not to take this money away from SEPTA," the councilman continued. SEPTA's Cohen shot back: "If this Council believes that it is appropriate for it to interject itself into the negotiations on a provision-by-provision basis, I will be deeply disappointed." Cohen also defended SEPTA's ridicule of the latest union proposal. He maintained that the TWU was misrepresenting its proposal as cost-effective when in fact it would cost the city $20 million over a three-year span. The union had claimed that the same proposal would save the city some $12 million.