SEPTA police are on strike. Here’s what you need to know for your commute.

SEPTA’s transit police walked off the job on Wednesday night amid months of contract negotiations.

The agency has been in discussion with the Fraternal Order of Transit Police Lodge 109, which represents transit police officers, since April but has yet to reach an agreement on a new contract for workers.

SEPTA’s workforce is represented by at least 14 bargaining units, and many are already in negotiations with the agency or will be in the coming months for new contracts. The discussions are occurring at a time when SEPTA anticipates facing an annual $240 million deficit in its operating budget starting in 2024.

The transit police officers’ contract expired on March 31, and negotiations between SEPTA and the Fraternal Order of Transit Police Lodge 109 have not yet reached a new agreement. The two parties have been negotiating since April and have had 13 formal negotiating sessions prior to this weekend. A state mediator joined the process in September, according to SEPTA.

Union members voted in October to authorize a walkout if necessary. Members voted to strike on Wednesday evening after union leadership put the authority’s latest offer before the members without recommending support.

Service on SEPTA will not be disrupted if a strike occurs. The agency has said that in the case of a strike, the transit system would be patrolled by 60 nonunionized transit police supervisors with help from the Pennsylvania State Police and Philadelphia Police Department, as well as officers from other agencies in the five-counties SEPTA operates in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

About 170 transit patrol and special unit police officers.

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The transit police union is asking for higher wages. Members have said they want wages that are on par with those that police officers receive in other departments in the region. According to the union, pay disparity is contributing to the staffing shortage it is facing. There are about 170 transit patrol officers, which is about 25% below its authorized size, according to Omari Bervine, president of FOTP Lodge 109.

The average salary for a SEPTA Police officer, including overtime, is $115,570 annually, according to the agency.

The current average rate is $37.07 an hour, which is a 21.3% increase since March 2022 due to increases in schedules and raises awarded in June of that year.

The base salary for an officer’s first year on the job is $64,570. That base salary increases to $85,618 in their 25th year on the job.

According to sources familiar with the negotiations, the union is asking for the same amount of money that was given to SEPTA’s largest bargaining unit, the Transport Workers Local 234, earlier this month in a one-year contract. In the past, SEPTA has used contracts reached with TWU to set a template for deals with other unions.

SEPTA’s current proposal to the transit police force is “in line” with that agreement, according to Septa’s CEO, Leslie S. Richards. It includes a 13% wage increase spread out over three years, a $3,000 signing bonus if a strike is averted, and a retention bonus of $2,500 for officers eligible for retirement.

FOTP president says in the TWU agreement, members get the money “up-front” while the proposal for transit police is backloaded. The union wants the money weighted towards keeping younger officers from leaving the agency to work elsewhere, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

Jeremy Crimmel, the economist for the union, said it would cost SEPTA just $650,000 over three years to give to give the transit officers the same wage increases given last month to SEPTA’s largest bargaining unit, Transport Workers Union Local 234, which represents bus, trolley, and transit train operators, among others mechanics and others.

The union offered to avoid a strike if SEPTA agreed to voluntary binding arbitration, but that’s a nonstarter, said Andrew Busch, a spokesperson for the agency.

“We don’t want to strike but will if we have to,” has said Bervine last month. “We’re just looking to get a fair deal, not less than what you’ve already given your other employees.”

The transit officers walked out in 2019 for six days. One of the issues at hand was whether members could review body-camera footage before filing incident reports. SEPTA’s policy barred officers from doing so, which could put them in the position of unintentionally making contradictory statements in their incident reports from what was filmed on camera, according to Bervine at the time.

SEPTA is known as one of the most strike-prone large transit systems in the country.

Since 1975, stoppages have also occurred among different SEPTA workers in 1975, 1977, twice in 1981, 1982, 1983, twice in 1986, 1995, 1998, 2005, 2009 and 2016.

In 1983, a strike affected Regional Rail service for 108 days.