SEPTA, union reach tentative agreement

They have a contract. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and Transport Workers Union of America Local 234 reached a tentative agreement last night to keep the trains and buses rolling in Philadelphia. "The deal is done," Mayor John Street proclaimed at a Center City event following the completion of the negotiations. "I believe that's good for the transit authority, and it's good for the workers and I think it's fair." Details of the three-year contract have not been released, pending ratification of the deal by the union members. Health care costs had arisen as a primary concern of union members, because SEPTA had wanted to pass on the rapidly escalating costs to union members in the form of co-payments for prescription drugs. "In the end all of the parties had to really take a hard look at what it was all about and then do some compromising and some adjusting and we got it done," said Street, who helped to broker the deal. The 5,000 members of Transit Workers Union Local 234 -- the operators of the city's buses, trolleys and subways -- gave the go-ahead for a strike last Monday. Their contract with SEPTA expired at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, March 15. Talks between Local 234 and SEPTA have continued off and on ever since. The last contract negotiation, in the summer of 1998, resulted in a 44-day strike. "There's an ebb and flow to all of this -- eventually in any negotiation there has to be a settlement," said City Controller Jonathan Saidel, who was involved with the current negotiations. "Even though people may call each other names and make statements about each other, what's important is that we reach a conclusion that's beneficial to the unions and acceptable to management -- and the trains will run on time." A strike by Local 234 would have shut down SEPTA's subways, trolleys and subway within city limits. Regional rail and suburban bus and trolley service would not be affected. An estimated 400,000 city commuters would have been affected by the potential work stoppage. Yesterday afternoon SEPTA announced a new, as-of-yet-undecided rate hike, reportedly unrelated to the then-looming transit strike. "No transit system is a money-making situation -- it's all subsidized," said Bruce Allen, a professor of public policy and management, regional science and transportation. "That leaves you less latitude than if you're a cash cow." Allen, who has previously studied SEPTA's operations, said that the transit authority derives between 55 and 65 percent of their revenues from the fare box -- the rest come from subsidies. "You don't have a bunch of happy subsidizers out there," Allen said, citing the reluctance among local, state and the federal government to fund mass transit. When the possibility of a strike still loomed, Penn administrators said they had made the necessary preparations to move students, faculty and staff using an armada of buses and vans. "I consider this like what we went through to prepare for Y2K and the Republican National Convention," Vice President for Business Services Leroy Nunery said yesterday afternoon. "We're going to work towards making sure things are maintained the way we're used to." Other states have worked to introduce legislation aimed at reducing the strike-related headaches. For example, the Taylor Law -- enacted in 1967 in New York state -- prohibits strikes by public employees such as transit workers, fire fighters and teachers. Law Professor Emeritus Clyde Summers said he feels that the Taylor Law -- which relies on mediation between labor and management -- would not do much to diffuse the situation in Philadelphia. "[The Taylor Law] has aggravated the situation because you end up with a law where these striking employees are supposed to be discharged -- but then who's going to run the trains?" Summers asked. "If you just try to bar the strike... it leaves the workers in a helpless situation."