Schools reopen as Philly transit strike continues

[November 04, 2009]  PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The first day of a transit strike caused widespread delays and frustrated thousands of commuters who had to find other ways to get around Pennsylvania's largest city.

On Wednesday, there will be an even greater test of how Philadelphia can cope without its bus, subway and trolley system as public schools, which were closed for Election Day, reopen. On an average weekday, about 54,000 public and parochial students use the city's transit system to get to school.

"Our expectations are for students and employees to do their best to come to school," school district spokesman Fernando Gallard said. "We're just hoping for the best here."

The sudden strike called early Tuesday by Transport Workers Union Local 234 all but crippled the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which averages more than 928,000 trips each weekday. The transit agency's largest union walked away from negotiations on a new contract over disagreements on wage, pension and health care issues.

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 health care coverage. Their contract expired in 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.

"We're very anxious to get back to the bargaining table, ASAP," Maloney said Tuesday. "We haven't heard back from them."

Several messages left with the union by The Associated Press seeking further comment on the negotiations were not returned Tuesday, and no further meetings had been scheduled.

Labor experts agree that a walkout over wages in a down economy is a hard sell. Striking transit workers may have a tough time earning the sympathy of passengers who are losing their own jobs and taking salary cuts, said Harley Shaiken, a labor studies professor at the University of California-Berkeley.

"For public employees during a tough recession, it's more difficult, but not impossible, to gain broader support," Shaiken said. "The key is convincing people that your victory benefits them rather than comes at their expense."

Gov. Ed Rendell, who had stepped in to mediate negotiations last weekend, was stunned by the walkout. Given the recession, layoffs and salary freezes in other sectors, the governor said SEPTA's offer was "sensational."

"It's just an excellent contract in the context of the times," Rendell 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."

Robert Washington, who rode his bicycle from West Philadelphia to get to his office job downtown Tuesday, called the walkout "arrogant" on the transit workers' part.

"They have a lot of nerve to ask for more money in this economy," Washington said. "There are people who don't have jobs who would love to have one of their jobs."

Generally speaking, management can afford to be tougher in an economic downturn in part because more labor is available, said Robert Trumble, director of the Virginia Labor Studies Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. At the same time, he said, workers are more determined to hang on to what they have and tend to look more critically at things like income distribution.

Philadelphia avoided a black eye over the weekend after the union, which represents more than 5,000 SEPTA drivers, operators and mechanics, held off on its threat to strike while the city hosted three World Series games. The subway ferries thousands of fans to the baseball stadium.

But coming as it did on Election Day, there were complaints that voters scrambling to find alternate transportation would be left with no time to cast ballots. A judge turned down a request to keep polls open an hour later.

The strike also affects buses that serve the suburbs in Bucks, Montgomery and Chester counties. Regional rail service is still operating, but trains were delayed as they experienced larger-than-normal crowds.

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 on the picket line 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 SEPTA gave it no choice.

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

[Associated Press; By KATHY MATHESON]

Associated Press writers Sam Hananel in Washington and JoAnn Loviglio and Patrick Walters in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

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