SEPTA's largest union puts its labor situation
succinctly: "The day of reckoning is fast approaching."
That was the opening line of a letter to the workers that
control the city's buses and subways. It's alerting them of a strike
authorization vote on Sunday. If a strike passes, the union could walk off the
job at any time, halting a majority of the public transportation in the city.
(Regional rail trains would continue to run, since its union recently signed a
new contract.)
The TWU Local 234 union has been negotiating with SEPTA
on and off for months. It's been without a contract since the spring. At the
moment, the main sticking point is pensions, said President Willie Brown in an
interview earlier this month. He says that union workers realize significantly
less monthly income from pensions than SEPTA management workers.
"With us, it's not a question of if we strike it's a
question of when we strike," Brown told me in early October.
As time passes, that threat seems to look more and more
like it could become a reality. The letter to union members said the following:
"SEPTA's latest proposal would freeze our pension
benefits at current levels for five years, require all TWU members to
contribute 10 percent of the premium for health insurance, which is
approximately $2636/year for family coverage, and force us to eat substantially
higher co-payments for office visits, hospital services and prescription
benefits," the letter states.
It goes on to say: "We have to fight to secure wage
increases that will enable us to maintain a decent standard of living... We
have to squash the naysayers, put aside petty differences, join together on the
picket lines and in the streets and be determined to fight for what is
rightfully ours."
Source: Philadelphia
Business Journal
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