GMCS Editorial: As an experienced
regional labor relation’s professional and contract negotiator, I am always saddened
when I read about proposal made at the table being released to the public. It does nothing to support the ongoing negotiations,
on either side of the table, and only serves the interests of those that released
the information. I have witnessed this actually kill an existing tentative agreement on the table. SEPTA’s public budget already allocates an additional
3% for wages next year. With that already
public statement of fact and the proposals, noted below, can we see the tables
being set for a three year deal at 2.5%-3% increase per year, maybe with some
minor language changes? This is just an
opinion, but the posturing on both sides is clear.
PHILADELPHIA The chances of a transit strike against SEPTA
are "very good," union president Willie Brown said Wednesday.
"My objective is not to get a strike, I don't look
forward to a strike . . . but we're not going to sign a contract full of
givebacks," said Brown, president of Transport Workers Union Local 234,
which represents about 5,500 bus drivers, subway and trolley operators, and
mechanics.
"I'm prepared for a long strike," Brown said in an
interview.
SEPTA and the union are far apart in negotiations, and no
talks have been held since the contract for transit workers in Philadelphia
expired March 15.
Three other contracts for suburban bus drivers, mechanics,
and clerical workers expire April 1 and April 7. The TWU said last week no
strike would occur until after those contracts expire.
SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said Wednesday, "We
still continue to hope that a work stoppage can be avoided."
The TWU seeks a two-year contract with 5 percent pay raises
in each year, while SEPTA is offering a five-year contract with no raises for
the first two years followed by annual raises of 1 percent, 2 percent, and 3
percent.
Under SEPTA's offer, workers would get $500 bonuses in 2014
and 2015 and would be required to pay more for their health insurance. The
employee contribution would rise from the current 1 percent of salary to 1.5
percent in 2016, 2 percent in 2017, and 2.5 percent in 2018.
New employees would not be eligible for the same pension
plan as current workers but would be offered a "457-b" plan, to which
the workers could contribute with SEPTA matching up to 10 percent of the
contribution.
Brown said SEPTA negotiators appeared to be seeking a
contract with terms similar to those recently accepted by city employees
represented by AFSCME District Council 47 and state employees represented by
AFSCME District Council 13. Those contracts provided average annual raises of
about 1 percent.
Brown suggested a better comparison for SEPTA workers would
be SEPTA managers, who will get raises of up to 7.5 percent this year, he said.
Williams said that managers' raises, on average, were based
on the raises for union workers but that individual managers could get as
little as no raise or as much as 5 percent, depending on performance.
The TWU has offered to forgo its right to strike if SEPTA
will agree to submit the contract dispute to binding arbitration. SEPTA has
declined.
Brown did not predict how soon a strike might occur. He said
he expected negotiations to resume this week, and said, "We're going to
spend the next few weeks trying to get a deal done."
But Brown said: "We won't go a year or two years or
three years without a contract. We're not going to tolerate that."
Brown, who famously said he was "the most hated man in
Philadelphia" when he led a six-day transit strike in 2009, said
Wednesday, "I'm going to do what I have to do" for transit workers
this year.
Typically, the agreement reached by the TWU sets a pattern
for the contracts with SEPTA's other unions.
One of those unions represents the engineers who operate
Regional Rail trains. They have been without a new contract since 2010, and
it's possible they could strike by late this year.
That could raise the prospect of the first-ever shutdown of
SEPTA's entire transit system: buses, subways, trolleys, and trains.
Mediation talks between SEPTA and the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen in Washington on Tuesday were not productive,
according to a union representative, and the engineers are seeking to be
released from mediation.
If the two sides are released from federal mediation, that
would start a 30-day "cooling off" period and a 240-day
dispute-resolution period required before a strike or lockout was permitted.
That period would expire in November or December, depending
on when a presidential board was created to investigate the long-running
contract dispute.
The engineers last went on strike against SEPTA for 108 days
in 1983, after the transit agency took over operation of the Regional Rail
system from Conrail.
Source: Philly.com
No comments:
Post a Comment