PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — SEPTA’s largest union has a new leader.
Brian Pollitt ascended to president of Transport Workers Union Local 234 this month, filling the shoes of his longtime mentor Willie Brown. As Local 234’s executive vice president since 2013, Pollitt worked closely with Brown.
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“Willie and I have been running in tandem for the last 20-something years,” Pollitt told KYW Newsradio. “There’s an old saying in the labor movement, that in order to be a good leader, you have to be a good follower. Well, I was Willie’s right-hand man.”
Pollitt described Brown, 58, as “the loud guy” and himself as “rather soft-spoken.” But 55-year-old Pollitt says they share the same philosophy of protecting the membership.
“We were the same generation, the same age and we had the same mindset,” he said, adding that he expects his leadership to be “business as usual.”
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Pollitt began his career in 1990 as a bus operator in SEPTA’s Callowhill district. Veterans there noticed that he always seemed to be reading the union contract.
“One of the old guys had said to me, ‘I see you reading all the time and the people in here are receptive to your advice when it comes to the contract. You should get involved in the union,’ ” he recalled.
He did, rising from shop steward to executive vice president of the 5,000-member union in 2013.
Brown recently left his job as president of Local 234 to head its Transit, Universities, Utilities and Services division.
Pollitt was instrumental in negotiating the union’s two-year contract in October, which gave members raises and pandemic hazard pay. He said he’s already preparing to negotiate the next one.
“After the ratification, I started the process of working on the next round of negotiations,” Pollitt said. “My goal is to build solidarity within our ranks and get my members mentally, physically and financially prepared as we make our way through this pandemic and on to the next round of bargaining.”
Pollitt is filling Brown’s unexpired term as president, and he said he plans to run for a full three-year term in Local 234’s election in September.