For the second time in a year, the wheels of Philadelphia's public transportation system may come grinding to a screeching halt.
Contract negotiations between SEPTA and the union which represents the workers who run the system's Regional Rail trains have so far gone nowhere.
If a contract isn't agreed to in the next several months, these workers could go on strike, forcing the tens of thousands of people who use Regional Rail weekly to find other ways of getting around.
The dispute is primarily centered around the practice of "pattern bargaining."
Pattern bargaining has been used by SEPTA since the Regional Rail division was carved out of what was then the Consolidated Rail Corp. in 1983, said Roland Wilder, general counsel for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the union which represents Regional Rail workers.
Under this system, 16 smaller unions, including BLET, would receive a similar contract to the one which SEPTA's largest union, the Transit Workers Union, agreed to.
BLET, however, accuses SEPTA of trying to break with this longstanding practice.
According to previous bargaining practices, BLET union members should be slated to receive a 4 percent wage increase in 2006 and 2007, Wilder said. However, he claims that SEPTA has so far refused any salary increase.
The Transit Workers Union received 3 percent in annual pay raises after a local transit strike last November.
SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said TWU and BLET "and their contracts are very different" and that SEPTA and BLET have had talks for months but have been unable to reach an agreement.
Regional Rail workers could not strike until near the end of the year, Maloney said, adding that SEPTA isn't very concerned about a strike.
A July 6 Philadelphia Inquirer article said the union could strike as early as September.
"There's no reason for a work stoppage over this whatsoever," Maloney said, adding that he expects a contract to be settled "without any disruption of service."
Wilder, the union's general counsel, said the union would take so-called "self-help" measures -- which would include striking -- if things continue as they are.
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