No change in SEPTA standoff

The ongoing SEPTA labor negotiations are becoming a lot like TV's Seinfeld: nothing seems to happen. The threat of a strike still casts a pall over the negotiations, as the Transport Workers Union Local 234 continues to extend a temporary contract on an hour-by-hour basis. City buses, subways and trolleys are expected to run on schedule today. For the ninth straight day, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority and leaders of the TWU accomplished little if anything in attempting to settle the three-month-old labor dispute. "There was nothing productive done," SEPTA negotiator Patrick Battel told reporters gathered yesterday at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel, where the talks are taking place. The two sides met for less than half an hour yesterday, during which time union officials asked SEPTA negotiators some basic financial questions on wage issues, Battel said. The two sides are still very far apart on such issues as wages, pension plans and a zero-tolerance drug and alcohol policy. Both sides have repeatedly accused the other of negotiating in bad faith. The standstill has continued since March 14, when the union agreed to keep talking past the contract deadline and postpone a possible strike by transit workers. A strike by the 5,300-member union would shut down most buses, trolleys and subways, leaving the transit system's 450,000 weekday passengers searching for other ways to get around the city. Regional rail lines would be unaffected. SEPTA management stepped up its public relations campaign yesterday afternoon, handing riders pamphlets entitled "What's Going On? Why SEPTA can't reach a new contract with the TWU." The pamphlet describes the negotiations as "pretty ridiculous," claiming the TWU "continues to demonstrate its interest in engaging in one contrived media stunt after another instead of negotiating in good faith a new agreement." The pamphlet also accuses TWU leaders of "continuing to hold riders, and their employees, hostage." SEPTA officials have maintained for the past week that if union leaders were to take management's proposal to the rank-and-file workers, they would approve it. Also yesterday, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), urged both parties to settle their dispute as quickly as possible, but refused to take sides. "I believe the parties have to work this out on the collective bargaining table on their own," Specter said after addressing the American Public Transit Association commuter rail conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Despite the current acrimony, Battel sounded hopeful that a settlement would eventually be worked out. "I've been involved in collective bargaining for 20 years," he said. "The one thing that always happens is at the end of it, there is an agreement."

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