SEPTA and transit police have resumed negotiations, but a strike is still on the table

Leaders of the Transit Police union stepped back from the brink of a work stoppage Monday night, at least temporarily, continuing talks with SEPTA management about a new contract for the transportation system’s patrol officers.

After working through the weekend, the union and the transit agency had already bargained for several hours beginning at 10 a.m. on Monday, and the Fraternal Order of Transit Police Lodge 109 executive board had already met to consider whether to call a strike and were beginning to brief members at about 5 p.m. when word came of a new SEPTA proposal.

In the end, the two sides agreed to reconvene on Tuesday morning, with the union delaying a possible strike until at least midday while it reviews the offer.

SEPTA CEO Leslie S. Richards sat in on negotiations with the union for the first time, spending about 90 minutes at the table, sources said. Union leaders say they have asked for months to talk with Richards herself, instead of going through lawyers and other intermediaries.

The transit police officers’ contract expired in March, and union members voted last month to authorize a walkout. The union represents about 170 patrol officers.

The union argues a pay disparity has contributed to police understaffing amid rider concerns about crime and antisocial behavior on transit.

Unlike union-represented municipal police officers such as those in Philadelphia, who must keep working while contract impasses are decided in mandatory binding arbitration, SEPTA’s transit officers are permitted to strike. Transit police have no right to binding arbitration under the 1981 state law that established the force.

Union leaders have said members are seeking wage increases comparable to those in the new one-year contract for SEPTA’s largest union, Transport Workers Union Local 234, ratified earlier this month. The agency was proposing a deal that was not as generous because of the way it was structured, said Omari Bervine, president of their union.

SEPTA traditionally uses contracts reached with TWU Local 234 to set a template for deals with other unions, a tactic known as “pattern bargaining.” The 5,000-member local represents bus, trolley, and transit train operators, mechanics and others.

“SEPTA’s executives talk a good game about ‘pattern bargaining’ and they told us to wait until they wrapped up negotiations with TWU Local 234, but since the conclusion of the TWU talks they have steadfastly refused to offer parity,” said Bervine, a SEPTA patrol officer. “We haven’t seen a proposal with comparable dollars, improvements in benefits or timing of raises.”

Local 234′s deal gave members across-the-board wage increases of 7%, a faster progression toward the top wage, and a $3,000 signing bonus. It also included retention bonuses to encourage retirement-eligible vehicle operators to remain on the job, and increases in pension benefits.

Richards said SEPTA’s current proposal is “in line” with the TWU agreement, including a 13% wage increase for transit police officers spread over three years, along with a $3,000 signing bonus if there is no strike and a retention bonus of $2,500 for officers eligible for retirement.

“These negotiations are complicated and a number of issues remain under discussion,” Richards said in a letter Sunday night to City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas and eight colleagues.

But Bervine, the transit police union president, said TWU “gets the money up-front” while the proposal for his members is backloaded. SEPTA is basing its offer of a 13% increase to the police in part on a 6% raise the transport workers union got in its two-year 2021 contract, some of which the union has already received, he said.

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

The current average rate is $37.07 an hour, which is a 21.3% increase since March 2022 due to raises awarded in June of that year, which SEPTA intended to help it recruit new officers and retain them. 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.

SEPTA said its service would not be disrupted. In the case of a strike, officials said 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 it serves in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

» READ MORE: SEPTA police may walk off the job. Here’s what you need to know for your commute.

A customer who witnesses an incident or needs assistance should call 911 or use the Transit Watch app, and the closest officers will respond, said SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch. “In a strike situation we want to reassure them that responses to incidents will be handled the same way as they are now.”

SEPTA is known as one of the most strike-prone large transit systems in the country. Various unions have walked off the job at least 11 times since 1975.

In 2019, transit officers struck for six days, in part over whether members could review body-camera footage before filing incident reports. They walked out in 2012 for a week over a 15-cent difference between the union’s demand and SEPTA’s offer for an increase in the hourly rate members received for annual recertification as police officers.

On Monday, the two unions that represent SEPTA Regional Rail conductors and engineers voted to authorize a strike if they cannot reach an agreement. But bargaining is governed by the federal Railway Labor Act, which requires several steps of mediation and a cooling-off period before workers can walk out on a rail carrier.

SEPTA’s workforce is represented by at least 14 bargaining units, and many are already in negotiations for new contracts or will be in the coming months. At the same time, the authority anticipates an annual $240 million annual deficit in its operating budget starting in 2024, as it spends the last of its federal pandemic aid. A possible new funding mechanism for state transit agencies, which SEPTA says would give it $190 million yearly from the sales tax, is hung up in the legislature.