Philadelphia transit talks continue
October 31, 2009
PHILADELPHIA (AP)—Negotiators for Philadelphia’s transit agency and itslargest union huddled Saturday in the shadow of an evening strike deadline bythe union that could send workers walking off the job just before the start ofGame 3 of the World Series.
The Transport Workers Local 234 had threatened to go on strike just aftermidnight Friday if there was no accord with the Southeastern PennsylvaniaTransportation Authority. But the union agreed to Gov. Ed Rendell’s request tokeep talking until 6 p.m. Saturday, just hours before the start of the baseballgame between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees.
The agency’s contract with the union—which represents more than 5,000 busdrivers, subway and trolley operators and mechanics—expired last spring, andmembers voted Oct. 25 to authorize a strike.
The Phillies and Yankees are scheduled to play the third, fourth and fifthgames of the Series on Saturday, Sunday and Monday in Philadelphia. Most of thesystem’s 810,000 riders use buses, subway lines and trolleys to get to work, butSEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said about 8,000 people typically take transitto the baseball stadium for games.
Union workers, who earn an average $52,000 a year, are seeking an annual 4percent wage hike and want to keep the current 1 percent contribution they maketoward the cost of their health care coverage. SEPTA is offering no raises inthe first two years and 2 percent raises in the final two years of a four-yearcontract and wants to raise the health care contribution to 4 percent.
A 2005 SEPTA strike lasted seven days, while a 1998 strike hampered thetransit system for 40 days.
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