Philadelphia Transit Workers Strike

Philadelphia’s morning commute ground to a halt on Tuesday after the city transit system’s largest union went on strike at 3 a.m. Eastern time.
The strike by Local 234 of the Transport Workers Union left commuters walking, hitching rides, catching cabs or biking to work. The impact was lessened somewhat by the fact that public schools in the city are closed Tuesday for teachers’ conferences.

The strike was announced a few hours after the Phillies beat the Yankees in Game 5 of the World Series, the last game of the series scheduled to be played in Philadelphia.

The action was in clear defiance of Gov. Ed Rendell, who over the weekend had ordered the union and the transit authority, known as Septa, to remain at the bargaining table or risk consequences.

Willie Brown, president of Local 234, said negotiations stalled because of disagreements over wages and workers’ rights.

He said that the transit authority had consistently been pulling money out of its already underfunded pension plan and that management was unwilling to negotiate over a right for employees to choose work assignments based on seniority.

Transit workers in Philadelphia are paid an average of $52,000 a year, excluding benefits. They are seeking annual raises of 4 percent and to keep employees’ contributions toward the cost of their health care coverage at 1 percent of pay, Mr. Brown said.

Transit officials denied the accusations about raiding the pension fund, and said their offer, raises totaling 11.5 percent spread over 5 years with no raise in the first year, coupled with increases in workers’ pensions, was a generous one.
At a news conference late Monday night, Governor Rendell called the decision to strike before dawn “irresponsible.”

The mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, added that he was “totally outraged” that the union chose to strike in the middle of the night.

A strike against the transit authority in 2005 lasted seven days; a 998 transit strike lasted for 40 days.