Transit police union could strike Monday afternoon as contract talks with SEPTA have stalled

Transit police are poised to walk off the job as early as Monday afternoon — the deadline their union set — as weekend contract talks with SEPTA failed to produce a last-minute agreement, according to union leaders and the transit agency.

SEPTA management and the Fraternal Order of Transit Police Lodge 109 met until about 8 p.m. Sunday and had talked for several hours on Saturday in an effort to forestall a strike. The transit police officers’ contract expired in March and union members voted last month to authorize a walkout.

Members of the FOTP have said they want wages that are closer to those offered by other police departments in the region. The union argues a pay disparity has contributed to understaffing amid rider concerns about crime and antisocial behavior on transit.

“While SEPTA is disappointed that the FOTP — in the midst of negotiations being mediated by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry — arbitrarily selected tomorrow as a strike deadline, we hope you will join us in encouraging FOTP leadership to remain at the bargaining table,” SEPTA CEO Leslie S. Richards said in a letter Sunday night to City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas and eight colleagues.

The Council members had expressed support for the union and urged SEPTA to settle in their own letter to Richards Friday.

The union’s executive board is scheduled to meet Monday in the early afternoon to review the latest offer from SEPTA and decide whether to strike, followed by a general membership meeting. A strike would begin after that, union leaders said — despite earlier accounts that a job action would come shortly after midnight.

“We don’t want to strike but will if we have to,” said Omari Bervine, president of FOTP Lodge 109. “We’re just looking to get a fair deal, not less than what you’ve already given your other employees.”

Service would not be disrupted if the officers strike, SEPTA said. The agency plans to have 60 nonunionized transit police supervisors patrol the system with help from the Pennsylvania State Police and Philadelphia Police Department, as well as officers from other agencies in its five-county Southeastern Pennsylvania service area.

Unlike union-represented municipal 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.

Negotiations have made little progress as the FOTP seeks the same amount of money given to Transport Workers Local 234, SEPTA’s largest bargaining unit, in a one-year contract ratified earlier this month, sources familiar with the talks said.

The union also offered to stay on the job and continue working if SEPTA would agree to voluntary binding arbitration. That’s a nonstarter for the transit agency’s management, spokesperson Andrew Busch said.

Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson, the chair of the transportation committee, said Sunday that everyone would lose if talks stop and the union walks. “A strike will erode public confidence in SEPTA’s ability to keep commuters safe,” Johnson said. “Hopefully a deal can be reached by both parties as soon as possible.”

SEPTA traditionally engages in “pattern bargaining,” using contracts reached with TWU Local 234 to set a template for deals with other unions. The 5,000-member local represents bus, trolley, and transit train operators.

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 the letter to council members.

But Bervine, the FOTP 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 received in its two-year 2021 contract.

FOTP wants the money weighted toward keeping officers, who tend to be younger, from jumping to other police agencies, sources said. With about 170 patrol officers, the force is about 25% below its authorized size, Bervine said.

SEPTA added 21 new police officers this year after increasing early career pay rates in 2022, but Bervine said attrition means net gains are smaller as members continue to leave for better paying law enforcement agencies.

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

Before the weekend, there had been 13 formal negotiating sessions with the police union since April, with the state mediator joining the process Sept. 1, SEPTA said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.