Union walks out of SEPTA negotiations

Union officials refused to comment as they left the hotel, signaling a possible breakdown in the talks. In a sign that contract talks between the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and its union may have reached a standstill, negotiators from Transport Workers Union Local 234 last night walked out of the hotel where they had been negotiating but refused to answer reporters' questions. It was unclear last night whether the union planned to strike today. Contract negotiations had continued virtually around-the-clock since midnight Saturday, when union representatives agreed to extend their talks beyond the March 15 deadline. The union has said it would continue to negotiate as long as talks were progressing. But late yesterday afternoon, TWU President Steve Brookens announced that the union would call a strike for today if SEPTA -- the nation's fifth largest public transportation system -- refused to bend. As of late last night, the union had not announced a walk-out. A strike by the 5,600-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. "We are quite a distance apart at the present moment," Brookens said yesterday afternoon. Yesterday, SEPTA's chief strategist David L. Cohen, Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell's former chief of staff, told reporters at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel that "within that framework there is virtually no more room for SEPTA to move," and that the union has made a "small give? on some of those issues." The negotiations, which have been ongoing since late December, continue to focus on the issues of work rules, employee absenteeism, SEPTA's ability to sustain itself financially, workers' compensation and health benefits, according to Cohen. He cited the past contract as allowing an "abusive over-utilization" of benefits, in which employees collect money even when they are not on the job. But union officials have consistently blasted several SEPTA's contract proposals, stressing that they give management too much power over union employees. SEPTA -- currently plagued by a $150 million operating deficit -- wants to delay wage increases for the union employees, hire part-time bus and train operators, change the current health benefits system and rewrite work rules to move away from the seniority system. But union leaders complain that SEPTA is deliberately trying to cut employees' pay. The current negotiations began in reaction to an 85-page contract SEPTA proposed in late December, which left the union claiming management would have too much power. At the time, the union countered with a 15-page list of contract proposals, which included changing the company's pension system to allow employees to retire earlier.

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