PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — More than 170 transit police officers walked off the job on Wednesday night after their union voted down the latest contract offer from SEPTA. A few went directly to SEPTA headquarters in Center City with picket signs.
“Our members took a bite today. They are in [agreement] with us. And effective immediately, we are on strike,” said Troy Parham, vice president of the Fraternal Order of Transit Police (FOTP) Lodge 109.
In an up-or-down vote that ran Wednesday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., FOTP members were asked to decide between accepting the transit agency’s latest offer or going on strike. Parham said that out of 124 officers who cast a vote, 83 — or about two-thirds — voted against the contract. Immediately following the tabulation of ballots at 6:30 p.m., union leaders called the strike.
“They know what it would have taken to keep us at work. And they know what it’ll take to get us back to work. The ball’s in their court,” Parham said.
Parham said they’re stuck on the terms of the contract.
SEPTA said it’s a 13% raise over three years, a $3,000 signing bonus, and a $2,500 retention bonus for retirement-eligible officers. But Parham said the way raises would be split up pushes it past 43 months.
According to a spokesperson, SEPTA has activated its strike contingency plan to ensure a degree of safety and security. Taking the place of union members on strike will be a combination of non-union transit police managers, private security guards, and local law enforcement officers from the Philadelphia Police Department, university police departments, and police from outer-county areas served by SEPTA routes. Transit Police Chief Chuck Lawson said they have been assigned to specific areas in the system where they are expected to be needed most.
“They’re gonna be at the spots that we need them the most,” said Lawson. “They’re working long hours without any days off. You’re gonna see cops on the system.”
“They’re displacing all these cops and having them pick up our responsibilities when you have your own police department,” Parham criticized. “Just give us a fair contract and let us go back to work.”
Parham said if SEPTA presents another deal that the union finds “unacceptable,” it will not endorse it.
“We will let our members vote on it. We’re not gonna endorse a bad deal for them,” he added.
Transit police have been working without a contract since March. A state mediator has been assisting with the contract talks since Sept. 1.
Officials from the union and SEPTA are expected to talk again Thursday afternoon.
This isn’t the first time in recent memory SEPTA’s transit officers have gone on strike. They walked off the job in 2019 for six days, and for just over a week in 2012, according to Parham.