SEPTA Strike Update: Ready For a World Series Commute Nightmare?

SEPTA is the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. It has 5,100 unionized bus drivers, subway and trolley operators, and mechanics. The latest SEPTA strike update is that the strike deadline of 12:01 AM Oct. 31 has passed.

This would create a World Series transportation nightmare. Gov. Ed Rendell has urged SEPTA to wait until after the World Series. The compromise offered via a SEPTA strike update this morning is that the union will continue to negotiate until 6PM local time. The game will start two hours later.

SEPTA's largest union, Local 234, has 1,200 members. Union workers have already voted to strike. In fact, Willie Brown, president of Transport Workers Union Local 234, had previously given a SEPTA strike update at 9:30 PM last night saying that he was 95 percent certain a strike would occur at the 12:01 AM deadline. Still, negotiations continue.

In fact, after the deadline passed, Allison Cooper, vice president of Transport Workers Local 234, said the group agreed to a request from Gov. Rendell to continue negotiations until 6 PM Saturday. "There is no strike right now," she said. "We are going to continue to talk until 6 PM."

The SEPTA strike update seems gloomy, at best. While the union is seeking an 18 percent pay raise over five years, SEPTA is offering 9 percent over five years with no increase in the first year of the new contract. That first year alone is unacceptable to the union.

Incidentally, the World Series is just one of the attractions this weekend that has commuters quaking at this SEPTA strike update. Besides the Phillies hosting the Yankees, there are the Flyers vs. Carolina, the Eagles vs. the Giants and Pearl Jam closing at The Spectrum.

UPDATE: The Union has agreed to not strike during the World Series.

Written by Michael Santo