Editor’s note: This story was updated with news of the contract agreement.
SEPTA has reached a tentative two-year contract agreement with Transportation Workers Union Local 234 following a weekend intervention by Gov. Josh Shapiro.
The agreement averts a strike the union had said was “imminent” on Friday because negotiations over pensions and healthcare contributions had reached an impasse.
On Sunday, the governor’s staff joined the talks, and the 5,000-member union agreed to postpone a walkout. Shapiro was “instrumental” in preventing the strike, TWU president Will Vera said.
SEPTA has seen many work stoppages over its history. However, in recent years strike threats have been more common than actual strikes.
Here’s a look at the runup to today’s agreement and the history of labor conflicts at the transit agency.
Why was the union threatening to strike?
TWU usually signs a new contract with SEPTA every two years. But over the last couple years, as the agency faced potential severe service cuts due to a structural budget deficit, they signed a series of one-year deals instead.
The last contract expired Nov. 7, and on Nov. 16 TWU members voted to authorize a strike.
The sticking points had been SEPTA’s request that union members pay more toward their health coverage, and TWU’s demands for a boost in pension benefits and changes related to sick time and to dental and vision benefits for new hires, the Inquirer reported.
On Friday, TWU International President John Samuelsen accused SEPTA of not taking the contract negotiations seriously. “SEPTA is attacking our health benefits; they’re attacking our retirement security,” he said, and announced that a strike was “imminent.”
SEPTA maintained that it was negotiating in good faith, but officials there were reportedly concerned about the cost of the proposed pension increase and other demands.
What effects could a strike have had?
A strike could have caused major service disruptions, halting the operations of city buses and trolleys, as well as the Market-Frankford Line and Broad Street Line. Regional Rail, Suburban Transit, LUCY and CCT Connect service would not be impacted.
Philly’s school Superintendent Tony Watlington sent a letter to district families Sunday saying that nearly 51,000 students would be affected by a strike, and warned that the district could not step in to provide transportation, due in part to an ongoing national driver shortage.
He said students who were late or absent due to “SEPTA-related travel challenges” would not be marked late or would be excused if a parent or guardian sent in a note. Staffers would also be excused for late arrivals.
If student or staff attendance at a school were “dramatically affected” by a strike, the school might be recommended to switch to virtual instruction, Watlington said. He advised parents to make sure their kids’ Chromebooks were working and advised them to keep checking the district’s strike blog and social media posts.
How was this related to SEPTA’s budget problems?
It isn’t clear exactly how the agency’s long-term financial challenges contributed to the impasse.
A year ago, when SEPTA last agreed to bump up worker pay and pension benefits, then-chief operating officer (now general manager) Scott Sauer said the move would not have a major impact, positive or negative, on the authority’s plans for dealing with its looming budget crisis.
SEPTA has a $213 million annual structural deficit due in part to rising labor costs, as well as higher spending on fuel, power, equipment and other needs. There are also other factors like reduced ridership since the pandemic and the end of federal relief aid. Its annual budget is $2.6 billion.
The agency has a backlog in capital needs, like new vehicles and station upgrades, that officials say amounts to more than $10 billion. It’s also spending tens of millions of dollars to respond to a series of safety challenges and federal mandates, most recently to retrofit fire-prone, 50-year-old Regional Rail cars.
Republican state legislators have repeatedly rejected Shapiro’s proposals to permanently boost funding for transit. The funding gap led SEPTA to substantially hike fares and temporarily eliminate some routes in August, and to plan more severe cuts, including the shuttering of several Regional Rail lines.
The dispute contributed to a four-month state budget stalemate. That ended without more money being earmarked for transit, but Shapiro directed PennDOT to let SEPTA transfer $394 million from its capital funds to help fund operations over the next two years.
With its structural budget now temporarily patched, it appears that SEPTA has enough to cover its projected labor costs.
According to some transit advocates, SEPTA is a relatively efficient organization — that is, its per-ride operating costs are lower than at many other major transit agencies — which could support arguments that it’s stingy in various areas, including employee pay and equipment. Some critics contest the validity of those calculations.
Have SEPTA workers gone on strike before?
SEPTA has been called the nation’s most strike-prone transit authority. Since it was created in 1963 out of a collection of old transit systems, it’s had 12 strikes, starting with a 9-day walkout in 1971.
That was followed by an 11-day strike in 1975 and a 44-day work stoppage in 1977, the longest in its history. Mayor Frank Rizzo refused to kick in further funding, public sentiment turned against workers, and TWU ended up accepting a worse contract than the original offer. The strike led to a lingering 10% drop in ridership.
Over the next four decades, strikes occurred every few years. There was a 40-day walkout in 1998 related to SEPTA’s demand to change rules on part-time employees, drug testing, and other issues.
However, strikes have been relatively uncommon in the 21st century, with only three so far. The most recent was a six-day work stoppage in November 2016, just before the presidential election. Like this year, pension improvements were one of the biggest issues, along with union demands for bathroom breaks and changes to address operator fatigue.
Fearing a disruption in voting, campaigns for Hillary Clinton and other candidates sought an emergency injunction to force transit workers back to their jobs, but the strike ended the day before the election.
TWU members voted to authorize strikes in 2023 and 2024, during difficult contract negotiations, but ended up reaching agreements without striking.
The post SEPTA, union reach contract agreement after Shapiro intervention appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY.
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