City transit back to normal with SEPTA accords

An agreement between management and the striking union ended the 40-day walkout. Have you been woken up the past few mornings by a strange, unidentifiable roar of what seems to be heavy machinery on the street outside your window? Don't worry, although the noises may seem a bit alien after a 40-day hiatus, they are only SEPTA buses resuming their usual pre-strike schedules. You'll get used to it soon. City buses, trolleys and subways were dusted off this weekend after SEPTA and the Transport Workers Union Local 234 reached a tentative contract agreement Friday evening, ending the city-debilitating strike. The transit authority was officially back in business by Saturday morning. Although buses, subways and trolleys were rolling before dawn, SEPTA was not collecting any fares. In an effort to win back disgruntled customers, SEPTA offered free rides through this past Tuesday, with complementary chocolate and newspapers to sweeten the deal. The perks are part of SEPTA's $5 million "Welcome Back" campaign, funded, in part, by a $2 million, one-time gift from the city. The transit authority plans to offer free rides every Friday throughout the month of July and is set to announce more incentives for August. Although SEPTA officials admitted a slight decrease in ridership since full service was reinstated Monday, they are optimistic that the aggressive campaign will eventually win back riders. "Yes, I do think they'll come back, but coming from me that's probably an expectedly optimistic statement," SEPTA spokesperson Stephan Rosenfeld said. "We have a lot going in our favor though -- the level of investment we're willing to make, a good economy in our areas of operation and impressive new equipment that we'll be introducing over the next few years." But union officials were a bit more cautious in their predictions for the restoration of ridership. "We'll have to wait and see" if SEPTA can win back riders, TWU business agent Bruce Bodner said. "I think it will be hard and it will probably take years to win them all back." Friday evening's announcement, which came after several false starts throughout the afternoon, put an end to the on-again, off-again negotiations which have characterized the heated stand-off between SEPTA and its largest union since the strike began June 1. The 5,200-member union had been working for nearly two and a half months without a contract -- which expired March 15 -- before walking off the job, citing no progress in negotiations. At issue were SEPTA's plans to hire more part-time workers, lower the starting wages for new employees and make changes in pensions. Although the proposed three-year contract will not become official until it passes a full-union ratification vote on July 24, Bodner was already claiming victory for the TWU. "I think it's a very good contract -- we got the fundamental issues in our favor and most of [SEPTA's] demands were turned aside," Bodner explained. "What SEPTA got was marginal change in things like workers comp and drug and alcohol policy.? We were most interested in job security." Both SEPTA and union officials agree that the contract should have no trouble passing a union vote next week. "I think it will pass overwhelmingly," Bodner added. "The workers are happy to get back to work and are satisfied with the contract they have won." The contract proposal calls for three percent annual raises and will increase pension benefits by about 32 percent for the average worker. Pension compensation is typically determined by a worker's salary at the time of retirement -- the greater the earnings, the greater the pension.Under the new contract, pensions will be calculated by looking at the last six years of service and using only the three best. SEPTA had originally wanted to use only the final three years, which the union protested because older workers typically cannot put in as much overtime as their younger counterparts and therefore earn less as they approach retirement. But in an effort to cut costs, SEPTA also set out to cap workers compensation for injured employees, who currently receive benefits indefinitely. The two sides finally agreed on a year of benefits for new employees and for veteran employees, 9 weeks of coverage for every year of service. The two sides also agreed to send the most troublesome issue -- the hiring of part-timers -- to binding arbitration. The union had previously offered to send the entire dispute to arbitration, to SEPTA's refusal. Although Bodner declined to speculate on the outcome of the arbitration, he was adamant that SEPTA has "no case." "It's hard to predict, but I don't think that SEPTA can make a good case for their proposal," he explained. "Part-timers aren't necessary in Philadelphia -- there's just no need. For SEPTA, it's all about being able to pay lower wages and give less worker comp." Although union and SEPTA officials would not single out any specific individual to credit in bringing about a settlement, Mayor Ed Rendell was emphatic in his praise of Congressman Bob Brady (D.-Pa.), who held the negotiations together in the last 48 hours. "I want to single out the work of Bob Brady," Rendell said at a news conference Friday marking the re-opening of the transit system. "Make no mistake, Bob Brady got us back on track." But Brady -- a former leader from the carpenter's union and chairperson of the local Democratic party -- was hesitant to accept the credit. "I was just trying to keep people talking, that's all I did," Brady said yesterday. "Both sides just needed someone to keep them talking and get rid of egos." Brady -- who along with Rendell served as an intermediary between Local 234 president Steve Brookens and SEPTA general manager John Leary -- said he did not find Brookens hard to deal with at all. Many SEPTA negotiators have blasted Brookens as being "uncooperative" during negotiations and accused the union president of rejecting reasonable settlements in an effort to win re-election. "Steve Brookens is a man committed to the union membership that put him in office," Brady said. "He set out to get the best possible settlement for them, and that's what he did." Bodner and Rosenfeld agreed that it was the duration of the strike and its effect on the city which finally produced a settlement. "[The strike] was hurting the city and so officials, namely the mayor, had to face their responsibility and help get a contract to get things moving again," Bodner added. But City Council President John Street has suggested that it was his lawsuit calling for state mediation that helped to produce a contract. Street had recently filed the lawsuit in a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court in an effort to restart stalled negotiations. "It's certainly clear to all observers that there was a definite relationship between the timing of Council President Street's announcement [planning to file a lawsuit] and the increase in the frequency and intensity of negotiations," Street spokesperson Bruce Crawley said yesterday. But Rosenfeld disagreed that Street's suit had anything to do with the final outcome, noting that "In a word, I can fully understand why [Street] would think so." With the ending of the strike and union picketers finally placated, Philadelphia will soon welcome back members of the Democratic National Committee, in hopes of landing the 2000 Democratic National Convention. Rather than cross union picket lines during their initial visit at the end of June, the DNC site-selection committee was sent packing just hours after its arrival. According to city officials, the committee will return to Philadelphia before Labor Day, although a specific date has not yet been set. "We're still talking to folks at the DNC to hammer out a date," said David Yarkin, the mayor's press secretary. "One thing we do know for sure is that they will be back and that Philadelphia is absolutely still in the running." And the end of the strike also finds University transport officials -- who arranged to transport a total of 25,000 people at a cost of $24,000 during the walkout -- breathing a bit easier. "It was relatively cheap when you look at it.? it cost less than $1 a person," Transportation Services Manager Ron Ward noted. "I think we did a bang-up job and if there's another strike in three years we'll be ever better prepared." And Ward's utter confidence in the University's transportation system even induced him to offer SEPTA an unbeatable offer. "If SEPTA's willing to pay us, we'll come in and manage their system for them and make it as efficient as Penn's," he said.

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