PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — While negotiations between SEPTA and its largest union continue, its labor contract with Transport Workers Union Local 234 expires at midnight tonight.
The TWU represents 5,200 workers in SEPTA’s City Division, including bus, subway, and trolley operators, but its members have not taken a strike authorization vote.
Neither SEPTA management, nor union leaders
,
are characterizing the state of negotiations, preferring to lay low publicly.A SEPTA spokeswoman says they “hope to avoid a work stoppage,” but the transit agency does have a service interruption plan in place.
READ: SEPTA Interruption Guide
The union representing bus and trolley operators says talk about a strike is premature.
A union spokesman says there “are hard and complicated issues,” including demands imposed by the Affordable Care Act, the nation’s health reform law.
Transport Workers Union Local 234 says it has no intentions of striking at midnight, and wants the SEPTA management to stop spouting rhetoric about that possibility.
TWU spokesman Jamie Horowitz says SEPTA is in a better position financially than it has been in years because of increased ridership.
He says the union is also not interested in a contract extension but wants a new contract. He also says no strike ratification vote has been taken and most likely won’t be taken until all of the union contracts expire, which happens April 6th.
Local 234 last struck in 2009. That walkout lasted six days.
Source: Philadelphia.CBSlocal.com
No comments:
Post a Comment