Update 11/21/24: SMART Local 1594 and SEPTA reached a tentative contract agreement, which includes a wage increase and safety upgrades.
SEPTA averted a strike with 4,000 of its bus, trolley and subway operators after reaching a tentative agreement with its largest union, Transportation Workers Local 234.
The new, one-year contract includes a 5% wage increase, a bump in pension and safety improvements including bulletproof enclosures for bus drivers. There were no concessions in health care. The group authorized a work stoppage three weeks ago if a deal could not be reached, spurring panic as two other major unions stood united with TWU Local 234 and poised for a triple strike.
MORE: SEPTA, transit workers unions to continue contract talks amid potential work stoppage
TWU Local 234's leadership will now send the agreement to its members for approval, and the contract is set to be ratified Dec. 6.
It's a sigh of relief for many public-transit-reliant Philadelphians. SEPTA's contract with SMART Local 1594 — representing 350 suburban operators of the Norristown High Speed Line, the Route 101 and 102 trolleys and buses — expired Monday. Earlier this week, the two unions said they were a united front and discussed banding together for a strike, which would have largely disrupted transportation in the area. Neither strike would have affected Regional Rail.
Simultaneously, AFSCME District Council 33, a city union representing 9,000 municipal workers in Philadelphia, authorized a strike at the end of October. The three groups had been working and strategizing together to increase leverage in negotiations.
At a meeting Tuesday morning, TWU Local 234 President Brian Pollitt said he was "pretty close" to calling for a strike and that he discussed a timeline as early as Thursday to "pull the plug."
"A lot of it was the citizens of the region; I didn't want them to have to go through a stoppage, and I tried and tried and tried," Pollitt said. "I said in the news that in the event that we needed to draw a line in the sand, I would definitely call it. But I tried to continue talking, and I guess my strategy worked."
Pollitt said a pilot program for the bulletproof enclosures is already in the works, SEPTA just needs to provide a bus to the manufacturer to start developing the product. Once that's complete, seven more test buses will hit the streets as early as June 2025.
The wage increase, meanwhile, is a win for workers but another cost for SEPTA, which faces a $240 million budget deficit that it's called a "transit death spiral." SEPTA's board will vote Thursday on a 7.5% fare increase and hearings for an additional 21.5% increase will begin Dec. 13. If there are no alterations to the plan, the combined 29% fare increase will go into affect Jan. 1 alongside service cuts.
However, this will only get the transportation company an additional $45 million, SEPTA Chief Operating Officer Scott Sauer said, so SEPTA will also prolong a hiring freeze and reduce contracted consulting services. It also paused the Bus Revolution plan, its route overhaul. The agency believes government funding is the only meaningful way to end the deficit.
This week, Philadelphia City Council will vote on legislation calling on the state and Gov. Josh Shapiro to "flex" funding away from highway projects and use it to aid the transit agency. At this time, Sauer said there's no guarantee of government aid, but that avoiding a strike means the agency is in the "best possible shape" to continue the fight at the state level. He hopes state dollars will help establish longer contracts with the unions.
"Our customers don't want to go through this cycle every single year of 'Will we go on strike? ... Will we be funded?" Sauer said. "So that structural deficit has to be plugged at some point, and it's going to take a legislative action to do that."