SEPTA’s largest union has voted to authorize a strike against the transit agency, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Transport Workers Union Local 234 members met to vote on a strike Sunday. One hundred percent of the membership voted to authorize the strike, the TWU Local 234 President Brian Pollitt told KYW Newsradio. The president said he did not want to go on strike, but will “if necessary.”
“For over a decade, the Union has been sounding the alarm to SEPTA about the problems with its radio communication systems – bus radios going into fallback mode, the dead zones underground, etc. – that leaves employees facing potentially life-threatening incidents with no way to let SEPTA know,” the union wrote in a newsletter on Oct. 23.
The decision came less than two weeks before the union’s contract expires. TWU Local 234 represents a number of workers, including bus, subway and trolley operators, mechanics, cashiers, maintenance and custodians.
On Thursday, SEPTA General Manager and CEO Leslie Richards announced her resignation effective late November. She will become a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, NBC10 reported.
SEPTA has been battling financial issues for years – most recently they proposed fare increases and began implementing full-length gates to prevent fare evasion. The transit system stated the decision was to combat the $240 million deficit in their budget each year.
There are three subway stations, Cecil B. Moore, Girard and Susquehanna-Dauphin, near Main Campus as well as the Temple University regional rail station at 9th and Berks Streets. Multiple bus routes service Temple’s campus and off-campus areas, including the 2, 3, 4, 16, 23 and 39.
The union and SEPTA have met on multiple occasions to discuss their upcoming one-year contract. Their next meeting is set to be Monday afternoon, KYW Newsradio reported.
“We’re going to continue to bargain in good faith in hopes we come to a good deal,” Pollitt told KYW Newsradio.
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