SEPTA strike: Negotiations continue through weekend as officials told to find solution
CENTER CITY - SEPTA and representatives for its unionized police union will be back at the bargaining table Saturday after they were told Friday to go home and come back with creative solutions to the strike.
At the bustling Olney Transportation Center in North Philly, a police van, with lights flashing, was parked while officers sifted through the throng of travelers.
Nursing home aide Mary Singleton is well aware of SEPTA police walking the picket line. She said, "There’s been a lot of violence on SEPTA lately and it’s the only means of transportation I have."
It’s day two of the strike by 178 unionized SEPTA police officers with the dispute over wages and contract length no closer to an end. Both sides agree Thursday’s first day of talks after the strike devolved into shouting. Troy Parham, of the police union, said the strike didn’t have to happen and he accuses SEPTA of "daring members to strike."
The union struck midweek after a vote rejecting SEPTA’s contract offer of a 13 percent wage hike over three years with $3,000 signing bonuses.
SEPTA police on strike after failed negotiations on new contract
SEPTA Transit Police voted to go on strike Wednesday after rejecting the latest contract offer from SEPTA officials.
Andrew Bush, of SEPTA, said, "The economics of it, we really don’t have room to change. That’s been consistent throughout the talks. We’re going to see what we can do. We want to get our police back on the job."
While cops picketed outside SEPTA headquarters, an arbitrator Friday told the sides to find creative solutions to the core of the strike - what the union says is not a 3-year deal they’re being offered but 43 months, resulting in lower wage hikes. And the signing bonuses are gone.
Parham stated, "Took it off the table! Now you want me to come down here and sell my cops on a worse deal than what they went out on? Are you serious about getting this resolved or not?"
SEPTA says 40 non-union police supervisors are now policing the tracks joined by unarmed private security staff. At the Olney station, city police were in clear view as passengers just kept on moving.