Union, SEPTA Talks Start Again

PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia's striking transit union says it will have no updates on the contract negotiations until Friday morning.

Video: Striking SEPTA Union's News Conference

Officials from Transport Workers Union Local 234 met Thursday with Gov. Ed Rendell to discuss their contract.

The strike has halted bus, subway and trolley service in the city since Tuesday.

Union workers are seeking a 9 percent wage hike over four years and want to keep at 1 percent the contribution they make toward the cost of health care coverage. Their contract expired in March.

SEPTA has offered an 11.5 percent wage increase over five years, with a $1,250 signing bonus in the first year, and increases in workers' pensions.

Gov. Rendell has been trying to get both sides back to the bargaining table.

"Remember, I was mayor so I remember vividly," said Rendell. We had a 40 day strike in 1998 and it didn't accomplish much cause by the end of it, the union members didn't get a whole lot better than they would've gotten on day one. And we don't want to subject the ridership in this city to 40 days so of course we're gonna keep meeting. And again, there were some ideas here. They weren't earth-shaking, ya know, brilliant, light-bulb ideas but there were some ideas here and we're gonna take a look and see if we can move stuff around and do it in a way that doesn't change the bottom line number for SEPTA but maybe more appealing to the union members."

Union president Willie Brown said on Wednesday he wanted to meet with Rendell.

"My members stand strongly behind me," Brown said a news conference Wednesday, adding that he hopes to meet with Gov. Ed Rendell in the next day or two. "Even though we did not want to strike, we were forced into a strike."

SEPTA General Manager Joe Casey also said he planned to talk to Rendell.

Brown has squarely blamed Mayor Michael Nutter for the current SEPTA union strike and said he will not negotiate with Nutter at the bargaining table.

"As far as the strike is concerned, Mayor Nutter – even though I may not respect the man, but I respect his position – "Little Caesar," as I like to call him, stood up in front of everybody and told around the public that a strike was off the table. What he did was he hogged the microphone. You never heard me say, or even Gov. Rendell say, that a strike was off the table. We said we were negotiating to try to get a contract,” Brown said.

Brown said he "greatly appreciated (Gov. Ed Rendell's) participation in the negotiations," saying he "has brought some money to the table."

"But when it comes to Michael Nutter, who's brought nothing to the table, nothing at all, other than dissension, we are supposed to meet the governor tomorrow or this afternoon, one of the two. Who I won't meet with is Michael Nutter. I will not meet with him. He has, in my opinion, destroyed any good faith we had to try and negotiate a contract, and he's cut out."

Mayor Nutter has responded to Brown's comments, telling Fox 29 that, "What I care about is this city. I was asked to participate in the contract negotiations...All of this other conversation rhetoric and the fingerpointing which I'm not gonna get in to is necessary and serves no purpose."

On Tuesday, an irate Nutter took Brown and union leaders to task for calling a strike with little notice on Election Day.

On Fox 29 News at 5, Nutter called the union action "despicable" and an "ambush" on city commuters.

SEPTA averages more than 928,000 trips each weekday, and was hit by a train fire on Wednesday.

Union workers, who earn an average of $52,000 a year, are seeking an annual 4 percent wage hike and want to keep the current 1 percent contribution they make toward the cost of their health care coverage. They have been without a contract since March.

SEPTA was offering an 11.5 percent wage increase over five years, with a $1,250 signing bonus in the first year, and increases in workers' pensions, SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said.

Given the recession, layoffs and salary freezes in other sectors, Rendell said SEPTA's offer was "sensational."

"It's just an excellent contract in the context of the times," he said. "It was, in my judgment, nuts to walk out. I think the SEPTA workers would have jumped at this."

As recently as Monday evening, union officials had given no walkout deadline as talks continued. So early morning commuters on Tuesday were bewildered and frustrated by locked subway stations and vacant bus stops.

"Everybody hates SEPTA, and this is why," said Ranisha Allen, who said she had no option but to count on the kindness of car-owning neighbors to get her to work from her north Philadelphia home. "These people go on strike and they don't think about people they hurt, people who can't get to work, kids who can't get to school."

A 2005 SEPTA strike lasted seven days, while a 1998 transit strike lasted for 40 days.

Frank Brinkman, a union member who does electronic work on an elevated SEPTA train, was out on the picket line early Tuesday. He said he was concerned about pension issues and changes to work rules.

He said that the union didn't want to strike, but that SEPTA gave it no choice.

"We don't want to see anybody suffer," he said. "We have to stand up for our rights."