Bush creates panel to study SEPTA contract

The 326 members of the United Transportation Union are finally receiving help from the White House after working since 2000 without an agreement on their contract with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority.

President Bush announced last weekend that he has established a three-member panel, Emergency Board 237, to investigate a collective bargaining dispute between SEPTA and the UTU.

The board will evaluate the dispute and make a final recommendation to the president within 30 days. The UTU represents conductors on the regional rail lines, which are used by about 100,000 local residents each day.

SEPTA General Manager Faye Moore "applied to the president for him to invoke his authority to appoint a three-member mediation board," SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said. "This process evolves by law and it's very complicated."

If the mediation board is unsuccessful in evaluating the case, the president will appoint a new three-member panel after another 30 days. This part of the process could last into December, Maloney said, at which point union members would be free to strike. No work stoppages are permitted within 120 days after the establishment of the emergency board.

"We remain hopeful" of the negotiations, Maloney said, adding that SEPTA would like to see a resolution that would satisfy both parties, without any kind of strike.

Under current law, the workers are not permitted to strike at this time.

SEPTA has asked for the creation of a mediation panel in the past, and the bargaining procedure is frequently "such a long bureaucratic process," Maloney said. This is because SEPTA falls under the control of the Federal Railroad Administration, which has stringent requirements on the process of contract negotiations.

According to Maloney, these requirements were established during World War II under the National Railway Act. The act was developed ou t of circumstances in which much-needed railway workers held a strike during the war, preventing the transportation of materials across the country when the nation relied more heavily on rail transportation.

One of the results of the strike was rules that require a number of steps be exhausted before any kind of strike can be held.

According to a press release issued by the National Mediation Board, Bush appointed attorneys Richard Kasher of Villanova, Pa., as chairman, and David Twomey, of Quincy, Mass., and Robert E. Peterson of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., as the panelists.

The three board members are neutral labor arbitrators and members of the National Academy of Arbitrators. The National Academy of Arbitrators is a professional association which fosters high standards of integrity and competence and includes as members the premier labor neutrals in the country, according to the release.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.