PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — There’s no deal yet — but no strike yet, either — for SEPTA transit police. They are still on the job while the union representing them continues to negotiate after rejecting the latest contract offer from SEPTA management.
It’s a two-year offer, shorter than the previous three-year proposal, says SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch. “We’re looking at a slightly different structure than yesterday to see if the union would be more agreeable to that.”
Busch says the offer includes a $3,000 signing bonus if there is no strike. “That’s on the table. That’s consistent with what TWU and other unions have received. So we think that’s a real incentive.”
But SEPTA’s offer got a chilly reception from the transit officers union.
“I can tell you that our members, where we are right now, don’t like the deal that’s on the table at all. And we’re trying to get SEPTA’s negotiators to give us something to sell them on,” said Fraternal Order of Transit Police Lodge 109 Vice President Troy Parham.
He says the deal offered raises of 3% in each year and fits the pattern of the just-settled Transport Workers Union contract, but he says his members need more.
“This deal is actually inside the pattern, timewise, but there’s other financial things in there for TWU that they’re not offering us. I can’t sell that to my members. I can’t.”
Parham says he’s willing to stay at the negotiating table, but while talks continue, a strike remains a real possibility.
“Unfortunately, that’s where my members are,” Parham said. “They want to walk now. We’re telling them, ‘Let us talk a little longer.’ They want to walk now.”
If SEPTA wants to prevent a strike, he said, it has to improve its offer.