SEPTA Talks with Unions for City, Suburban Transit Lines Stalled

There's no strike in the immediate future — but there isn't any progress between SEPTA and its primary transit union, either.

While SEPTA Regional Rail trains are back to work thanks to an order by President Barack Obama, there is apparently no progress in talks between SEPTA and the union representing workers on city and suburban bus, trolley and elevated/subway lines.

Talks between Transit Workers Union Local 234 and SEPTA management are stalled over health care cost sharing. Currently, union members pay 1 percent toward health care.

A SEPTA labor relations official wrote that the union has been “bombarding the Authority with detailed requests for health care information.”

TWU 234 head Willie Brown says no strike is imminent, but we all remember when he pulled a “surprise strike” in 2009. Still, there hasn’t been a strike authorization vote; the TWU contract with SEPTA expired in mid-March.

[KYW 1060]