A SEPTA strike is possible Friday. Contract talks with Transport Workers local have barely budged.

Contract talks between SEPTA and its largest labor union are intensifying ahead of a possible Friday morning work stoppage, with a clear pressure point: Transit agency officials say there’s no money. Union leaders do not believe them.

“SEPTA has a tendency to try to make people think they’re strapped. That’s not the case,” Brian Pollitt, president of Transport Workers Union Local 234, said in an interview. He pointed to a $500 million reserve fund intended to prevent service cuts.

» READ MORE: SEPTA workers prepare for potential strike that could come as soon as Friday

With roughly 5,000 members, Local 234 represents bus, subway, and trolley operators, mechanics, cashiers, maintenance people, and custodians.

Pollitt said the agency “miraculously” finds cash squirreled away to fund its priorities, including $40 million on planning and design for a proposed extension of the Norristown High Speed Line to King of Prussia — a project suspended indefinitely after the Federal Transit Administration denied a funding grant application.

“They have the money to give us a nice wage increase,” Pollitt said. “It’s just that they don’t want to.”

SEPTA declined Wednesday to comment on economic proposals to the union or the status of negotiations, except to say that talks continue and officials hope to reach a fair agreement. The agency has said for months its financial health is uncertain.

Pollitt said that SEPTA has not moved off its opening proposal for a one-year contract with no wage increase and offered a $1,000 signing bonus in exchange for concessions on costs for health-care coverage.

The union’s top demand is for additional steps to improve personal safety for frontline workers, many of whom face violence and harassment. It’s unclear how much money the demand might cost.

TWU Local 234 members voted last week to authorize a strike as soon as Friday at 12:01 a.m., after their current one-year contract expires. The authorization does not necessarily mean the union would immediately walk.

» READ MORE: What you need to know about a possible SEPTA strike

“I’m open for round-the-clock negotiations, from can’t-see in the morning to can’t-see at night, to get an agreement without a work-stoppage … but if it doesn’t look like there’s movement, I may have to pull the plug,” Pollitt said.

One possible wrinkle in timing of any job action: Leaders of Local 234 and District Council 33, representing 9,000 city workers, are considering syncing their strikes for maximum leverage, if they happen. The city workers union plans a strike authorization vote by secret ballot from Thursday to Nov. 13, with results announced the next day. Its members have been without a contract since July.

SEPTA faces a $240 million deficit that could bring service cuts and a second fare increase soon with no action in Harrisburg on an increase in state aid for public transportation systems proposed by Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Whether that can happen may depend on the partisan makeup of the Pennsylvania legislature, still being sorted out after the election. Republicans maintained their hold on the state Senate. Democrats were defending a one-seat majority in the House, and some races have not been called.

As for the reserve fund, SEPTA officials have said they are counting on the money to forestall severe service cuts as long as possible. Meanwhile, authority board members and the staff are considering an across-the-board fare hike of 22.5% early next year, on top of an effective 7.5% increase enacted in October by eliminating some discounts.

That move would amount to SEPTA riders paying about 30% more for each trip on transit.

SEPTA is known as one of the most strike-prone large transit systems in the country. Since 1975, at least 11 unions have walked off the job. Last year, SEPTA police officers struck for three days in December after working without a contract for nine months.

“My members move Philadelphia,” Pollitt said. “It’s time to invest in us.”