A TENTATIVE DEAL has been reached between SEPTA and one of
the Regional Rail unions with which it's been locked in a long labor dispute,
officials said yesterday.
Representatives from the transit authority and the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers agreed yesterday to the terms
of a new labor contract, said Arthur Davidson, the general chairman of the
union's System Council No. 7.
With the contract approved by union leadership, the next
step is for it to be ratified by IBEW's 220 members, who will be voting for the
next two weeks on the matter, Davidson said.
The terms, according to Davidson, reflect recommendations
made last month by a Presidential Emergency Board.
President Obama had convened the board at the request of
Gov. Corbett, who sought to end a strike by the IBEW and another union, the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, that shuttered Regional Rail
lines for one day in June.
In its report, the board recommends that the wage increases
paid out to the members of the BLET and the IBEW should be the same (11.5
percent) as those doled out in a 2010 contract with the Transport Workers
Union, which represents SEPTA's bus drivers and subway operators.
The board denied the idea of retroactive pay, a major
sticking point during the dispute, stemming from the time the unions have
worked without contracts - four and five years for BLET and IBEW, respectively.
Jerri Williams, a SEPTA spokeswoman, said a special meeting
would be held Monday to seek permission from the transit authority's board of
directors to have the board's chairman, Pasquale Deon, sign the deal as soon as
it's approved.
The other union, BLET, is still in talks with SEPTA,
Williams said.
"We're still hopeful. We are talking, and our
recommendations by [the board] have been helpful to bring parties closer
together," Williams said.
Source: Philly.com
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