SEPTA strike continues; talks might resume tomorrow

SEPTA and its striking workers seemed to edge closer to a settlement on Thursday, as Gov. Rendell and U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa.) worked to broker a deal that would get buses, subways and trolleys running again.

Negotiators for SEPTA and Transport Workers Union Local 234 may resume talks today.

On Thursday night, however, SEPTA officials were crafting new financial and personnel proposals, at Rendell's request, to present to the union.

Rendell met with Willie Brown, president of Transport Workers Union Local 234, Thursday evening to try to break an impasse that prompted the 5,100 SEPTA workers to strike at 3 a.m. Tuesday. And Brady returned from Washington for a fourth day of talks with union leaders.

The strike continued Thursday to play havoc with the lives of hundreds of thousands of commuters and students. And some commuter trains, already delayed by an influx of additional riders, were halted for hours Thursday morning after an R3/West Trenton train struck and killed a SEPTA track inspector in East Oak Lane.

The incident was the second in two days to affect Regional Rail service at a time when commuter trains are struggling with extra passengers because of the strike. On Wednesday, an R5/Paoli train caught fire in West Philadelphia, forcing passengers to evacuate through windows.

After three days without direct talks between SEPTA and the TWU, Thursday's intervention by Rendell and Brady sparked hopes for a settlement soon.

The union, which had scheduled a news conference early Thursday evening, canceled it as talks between Rendell and Brown continued.

After about an hour of discussions with Brown, Rendell asked SEPTA officials to make new calculations on economic and noneconomic issues. Rendell asked SEPTA to send him the new figures by 10 last night. He was then going to the TWU headquarters to meet again with union leaders.

"We are crunching numbers and dollars," said SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney, who declined to be specific about the issues involved.

Union leaders on Tuesday rejected a SEPTA contract offer that Rendell and Mayor Nutter characterized as generous. That proposal included a $1,250 signing bonus upon ratification, a 2.5 percent raise the second year, and a 3 percent raise in each of the final three years.

It also called for no increase in the workers' health-insurance contributions, which is 1 percent of base pay. It called for an increase in workers' contributions to their pensions, as well as an increase in the maximum pension payment to retirees.

In addition to increased pension contributions from SEPTA, the union is seeking a wage increase of 3 percent for each year of a four-year contract.

The pension issue has emerged as a key sticking point in negotiations. Brown said Wednesday the strikers would "stay out as long as it takes to secure our pension."

Brown met Thursday afternoon in City Hall with eight City Council members and continued to voice frustration with the mayor, referring to the walkout as "Nutter's strike," according to Councilman Frank Rizzo.

A day earlier, Brown had called Nutter a "little Caesar" and said he would not be welcome at the bargaining table.

At today's meeting with Council members, Brown depicted the mayor as the deal breaker that ended talks Monday night, and that led Brown, in anger, to call for the 3 a.m. strike. "Apparently the mayor did something that he (Brown) didn't elaborate on," Rizzo said.

In an interview after the meeting, Nutter said he was perplexed by Brown's comments.

"I have no idea what the gentleman is talking about," the mayor said.

Nutter recounted the final moments of Monday night's negotiations like this: "Gov. Rendell and I came into the room (to talk with Brown and other union leaders), and since the governor has been the lead negotiator, he did the bulk of the talking. . . . And so he told them that SEPTA was not putting any more money on the table, that this was their last offer, and that they had signed the agreement themselves. He said he thought it was a good contract and that he thought they should sign it - but if they felt they couldn't and had to take other action, including going on strike, then he understood that's what he had to do.

"I didn't say a word," Nutter said, noting that he and Rendell left shortly thereafter. The mayor said, that while Brown continues to say the mayor did something to offend him, Nutter said, "I didn't do a lot of talking during the course of the four days we were together."

The strike has meant added costs for police.

According to the Philadelphia Police Department, about $100,000 has been spent covering various SEPTA strike-related details, including $59,140.47 in overtime.

The effects of the transit strike seemed to lessen at local schools on Thursday.

At the 10 Catholic high schools in the city, attendance averaged 94 percent, about normal. City schools, meanwhile, continued to lag by nearly 15 percent at neighborhood schools and more than 11 percent at magnet and special admit schools.