Vol. 73/No. 48      December 14, 2009

Many workers said they voted for the contract because it increases wages and holds off the deepest cuts demanded by the company. Members of the union—which represents 5,100 drivers, operators, and mechanics—get no wage increase in the first year, a 2.5 percent raise in the second, and 3 percent in each of the final three years of the contract. They also will receive a one-time $1,250 signing bonus. This bonus is being paid by funds allocated from the state by Governor Edward Rendell, who moved in when negotiations stalled to try to broker a deal.

The contract increases what workers have to pay toward their pensions from 2 percent to 3 percent. The strike defeated SEPTA efforts to make workers pay a higher share of health insurance costs.

Support for the strike was mixed under the pressure of a vicious antilabor propaganda campaign, which was aided by some of the tactics of the union leadership. The strike was begun without notice at 3:00 a.m. November 3, stranding many area workers trying to get to their jobs that morning.

“I understand I’m the most hated man in Philadelphia right now,” union president Willie Brown told the press. “I have no problem with that.”

The strike took place while Philadelphia city workers and teachers have seen their contracts expire with no new settlement in sight. Some 22,000 city workers—including sanitation workers, secretaries, and firefighters—have been working without a contract since June 30. The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, which represents the school district’s 11,000 teachers, nurses, librarians, custodians, and other workers, has extended their contract a number of times since it expired August 31. The latest extension runs until January 15.

Both the city workers and teachers have faced a continuing antiworker campaign by Mayor Michael Nutter and other city officials, who say that the city’s 11.1 percent official unemployment rate and declining wage-tax income and other revenues mean that the city’s “financial condition is deteriorating.”

The results of the transit workers’ strike and the new contract emboldened many city workers. One group of city employees put out their own leaflet November 9 while the transit workers were still on strike, calling for workers to take a day off to protest the city’s refusal to negotiate a contract. The flyer described the mayor as “Mayor Cutter.”
 
 
Related articles:
London: Bus drivers strike over wage freeze
New Zealand miners win a new contract
Workers in Iran fight for back pay, higher wages  
 
 
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