Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 234 and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) reached a tentative two-year contract agreement, avoiding a strike that could have begun this week.
The contract includes across-the-board 3.5% annual wage increases for each year of the agreement; a two-year contract rather than the one-year agreements reached in the recent past; an increase in pension benefits; a higher night differential pay, which has not increased since 1995; an increase in the tool and clothing allowance; and improvements to benefits for new employees, including vision and dental benefits, kicking in after 90 days rather than after 15 months of employment.
“I am very pleased that we were able to settle without a strike. Our members had worked without a contract for the past month. Patience was growing thin and management seemed unhurried. Usually, we would have been locked into a hotel until we got this done,” said Local 234 President Will Vera. “The Governor and his people got key people from both sides in the same room last night, stopped the run-around, got promises from both sides and we reached a deal. Without the Governor’s intervention we would have been on strike this morning.”
“I would term this a retention contract. The improvements made will not only keep TWU members here for the long term, it also will make a SEPTA job attractive again. We want people to want to work here.”
SEPTA service will operate normally while union members review the tentative agreement and schedule a vote for ratification.
( Reproduced article from AFL-CIO) Note: This informant news story about the agreement between SEPTA and TWU Local 234 will be discussed on the LaborPress Podcast.
