PA: After a brutal year, SEPTA and its largest union are negotiating a new contract -- again

Leaders of SEPTA's largest employee union, Transport Workers Local 234, have told members to stay on the job as they bargain on a new agreement.

Friday, when the current contract expires, "is not our deadline," Bill Bannon, executive vice president of Local 234, said in a video update. Talks with the transit authority will continue next week "in good faith."

The 5,000-member local has not yet held a strike authorization vote, a common step near the end of a contract.

It was an olive branch in a relationship that has been contentious over the years. SEPTA unions have walked picket lines at least 12 times since 1975, earning the authority a reputation as the most strike-prone big transit agency in the U.S.

"We're asking you to please continue to come to work and put money aside. We want you to be prepared in case we have to call a work stoppage," Local 234 president Will Vera said in the video.

Vera said in an interview that his goal is to reach "nothing less" than a two-year deal with the mass transit agency.

"My members will be happy to hear that," he said. "Going back to the table every year is bothersome."

The last three contracts ran for one year each, negotiated as SEPTA weathered what it has called the worst period of financial turmoil in its history.

Traditionally, TWU Local 234 contracts have covered three years.

Vera, 48, took office as TWU Local 234's new president in late October, but he's not exactly new, having served as a union official since 2011. He has worked at SEPTA for 20 years, beginning as a bus operator in the Comly Depot.

Local 234 represents bus, subway, and trolley operators, mechanics, cashiers, maintenance people, and custodians, primarily in the city.

"We are committed to continuing these negotiations in good faith," spokesperson Andrew Busch said in a statement Tuesday. "Our goal is to reach an agreement that is fair to our hard-working employees and to the customers and taxpayers who fund SEPTA."

Crisis, cuts, and lawsuits

SEPTA was running a projected $213 million recurring deficit in its operating budget this year. As in the last several legislative sessions, SEPTA and other transit agencies were looking for new money from a sustainable source, but Senate Republicans spurned Gov. Josh Shapiro's proposal to use a greater share of the general sales tax.

In late August, SEPTA cut service by 20%, eliminating 32 bus lines and shortening 16 other routes. Buses, trolleys, and subways made fewer trips, increasing wait times and the likelihood of crowded buses and skipped stops.

Meanwhile, a Common Pleas Court judge ordered SEPTA to roll back the cuts, ruling in a lawsuit brought by a consumer advocate that argued it had other sources of money and did not need to impose the pain.

The transit agency imposed a fare increase that increased the cost of a base ride by 40 cents, from $2.50 to $2.90. That move also faces a legal challenge.

Then Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation gave SEPTA and Pittsburgh Regional Transit permission to move money allocated to them for infrastructure in the Public Transportation Trust Fund to plug operating gaps.

The maneuver gives SEPTA $394 million to help it stay afloat for two fiscal years.

That should make a two-year labor contract doable, TWU Local 234 believes.

SEPTA and its largest union reached one-year deals in 2022, 2023, and 2024, reflecting uncertainty as ridership continued to climb after dipping during the pandemic and federal aid was due to expire. At the same time, the state legislature did not act on additional funding for public transportation.

Shapiro's temporary solution is good in that it allows breathing room but is inadequate, Vera said.

"We do need dedicated funding, but we have to use what we've got," he said. "It's no different from a poker game. You play with the cards you've been dealt."

What does the union want?

In addition to a two-year deal, Local 234 will seek wage increases, though Vera declined to discuss numbers to avoid revealing strategy.

Another issue — the future of a project to install bullet-resistant cockpits in buses — is raising concern. SEPTA promised in TWU's last contract to better protect operators from attack and installed the compartments in several buses to test the technology.

The plan was to expand use of the enclosures the next time SEPTA made a large bus purchase, as they would be easier to install.

But SEPTA recently postponed a planned bus purchase for three years, citing the move of infrastructure money to operating accounts.

Vera asked SEPTA to tell the union how it plans to move forward with the safety measure, approved after a wave of assaults against operators, including the shooting death of Bernard Gribbin on his Germantown bus in 2023.

Among other things, union leaders want to know if SEPTA will retrofit current buses during the procurement delay, Vera said.

TWU Local 234 and SEPTA have also been talking about issues with the transit agency's new medical-claims management company, which complicates and delays approval of sick time off and insurance claims for workers.

Rocky labor relationship

SEPTA is known as one of the most strike-prone large transit systems in the country. Union workers have walked off the job at least 12 times since 1975.

Will there be a strike this time? It's probably too early to say.

But TWU Local 234's early move to avoid a strike authorization vote is a conciliatory gesture. It may be possible to reach a deal with less of the usual brinkmanship.

Said Vera: "I have hope."

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