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SEPTA Strike Looming?

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As of the morning of April 8, buses and trains in the Philadelphia region were still running. SEPTA (the transit authority for southeast Pennsylvania) union members were on the job even though contract talks have apparently broken down for the time being.  SEPTA management has placed what it calls its final offer on the table for the unions to accept.  The unions have not taken a strike vote and seem reluctant to hit picket lines even though their contract expired several weeks ago.  The last SEPTA strike occurred in 2009.

 

The question is will the union feel backed into a corner where there is no choice but to flex their considerable power as granted to them by the state of Pennsylvania, take a strike vote and walk off the job? Transit strikes inflict enormous costs and inconvenience on transit users, businesses and educational and health institutions.

 

There are questions of wage rates, health care contributions and presumably other issues not being reported by the media at play.  The wage increases proposed by SEPTA management have been described as inadequate by union leaders.

 

Since 2009, there has been a major change in funding that could give the unions bargaining leverage and, at the very least, make them less willing to settle for the offer on the table. Act 89, which passed in November of 2013, will provide $1.5 billion, or more, in additional funding over and above what SEPTA would have received absent the bill through fiscal year 2018-2019. While much of that increase will go to capital projects, SEPTA will also receive substantial boosts in state funding for operations and can ask for permission to divert capital funding to operations. Then too, the $1.5 billion rise is on top of the normal annual growth in funding.

 

In light of this windfall in funding, what will be the unions’ position regarding how much of that they should get?

 

It certainly weakens the stance of management in terms of arguing they simply don’t have the funding to provide more in the way of salary and benefits.  And the union can be expected to ask for work rule changes that could be expensive as well if they do not get significant hikes in pay.

 

So, the question is how much has the Act 89 add on funding entered into the negotiations? There has been no reporting in the media, but it would come as no surprise to learn that the union negotiators have it in mind even if they haven’t played that card as yet.

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Allegheny Institute
Allegheny Institute

The Allegheny Institute is a non-profit research and education organization. Our mission is to defend the interests of taxpayers, citizens and businesses against an increasingly burdensome and intrusive government.

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