Feds Meet With SEPTA, Workers to Avoid Strike

Mediation is required, but feds' recommendations are non-binding.

Remember last week’s one-day strike by SEPTA’s Regional Rail workers? It shut down when President Obama created a federal mediation board to resolve the situation. Well: Today the federal mediators are in town.  It could be a very long process.

NBC 10 reports:

The board will have about a month to meet with both sides before making recommendations to President Obama on July 14. While the mediation is seen as a way to resolve a future strike, the boards recommendations are non-binding.

The president does have the ability to sign two additional executive orders, each preventing the workers from striking for 120 days. Should the president sign those orders, the next possible strike could come in February 2015.

The workers are seeking pension increases, four years of retroactive pay increases, and pay increases going forward.