38 Responses to “Oh SEPTA Up Yours”
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November 3rd, 2009 at 2:41 am
SNOW DAY EVERYBODY! No school/work. Right, right?
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:40 am
So INEPTA can go on strike whenever they want?
Talk about extortion.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:51 am
And did you see the contract terms they rejected? Seriously unbelievable. Jobs where people are actually held accountable and expected to perform well don’t have terms like that. For SEPTA to get that kind of deal, and reject it, is truly insulting to anyone with a job.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:54 am
organize then friendlynerd, I am glad you feel like you are righteous as a “better” worker who doesn’t get treated as well, I would argue we all deserve better.
Solidarity with TWU and striking workers.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:58 am
bike the strike.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:02 am
See, Julia, in the real world when people don’t perform they get a pink slip. Not raises, bonuses, and perks. When SEPTA starts functioning better, when people are held accountable for their low standards, I will agree with you that they deserve more. If that comes across as righteous, well, ok.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:15 am
I wrote Willie Brown an open letter. I think we can all agree with it:
http://markskull.blogspot.com/2009/11/open-letter-to-twu-234-leader-willie.html
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:21 am
I strongly support unions but the reports of SEPTA’s present demands make me resent the position their leadership is taking. Can anyone provide a link with more specific and credible details of what SEPTA demands actually are in this dispute?
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:22 am
@small potatoes:
According to SEPTA, their offer included an 11-percent wage increase over five years, an 11-percent increase in pension contributions and no increase in worker contributions toward their own health care.
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/110309-nutter_irate_at_septa_surprise_strike
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:27 am
wow. pieces of shit. i guess i’m pro-union, anti-septa. sorry about my comments a few days ago defending them. i retract them.
another dickballs move by septa: i rode my bike to market east for the R6 this morning…no bigs…except normally they have 3 cars for the R6, but today, with more people bringing bikes on the train, they only have 2 cars.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:49 am
Julia, do you even use SEPTA? Do you know what terms SEPTA’s workers rejected before they struck (outlined in Larry’s comment)? How did you get to work today, or are you trying to turn your blog entry into acceptable response paper for your Social Justice 101 class?
In earlier coverage it seemed like what ultimately prevented a strike during the Series games was Rendell holding some sort of nuclear option against the workers and management (I think it was basically “if there’s a strike, I’ll see state funding pulled from SEPTA and no one will have a job to get to” but that’s only based on inference from press coverage). Is this something he’s going to whip out now that the TWU sandbagged the city with 3 hours notice?
Minor quibble to tips, looks like the site never updated the daylight savings setting for the comments.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:55 am
My train this morning was 2 cars short. Had to skip the last two stops en route to 30th because it was packed.
One division duly authorized and called a strike. It sucks, but at least it was on the level (we’re like Paris now!). Other divisions going rogue and screwing with passengers just because: not doing the union any favors.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:04 am
And it’s an election day.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:09 am
julia,
At the risk of repeating myself from the last SEPTA strike thread, do you really believe that the TWU workers deserve “more” AND you are willing to pay for it out of your own pocket? Because all this is is extortion of the taxpayers across the entire state. These assholes left a pretty great deal on the table (no increase for worker health care contributions??); a deal that is orders of magnitude better than what all the people who can’t get to work today get.
To put things in Philebs terms, this is why we can’t have nice things. How can SEPTA improve if more and more of its (taxpayer subsidized) budgets has to go towards wages for its nonincentivized workers?
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:29 am
I went to bed last night joyfully after the Phils win, woke up this morning (without checking the news, c’mon, it was early and the past week has been exhausting) and dragged my ass to the bus to get to school by 7am. No bus. Thanks SEPTA.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:37 am
what upsets me is that they kept the subways going to get money from the world series. then they screw over loyal customers who ride it every day. i just bought my monthly pass. now i can’t even use it.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:38 am
Is there any info from the TWU about why they walked away? The deal being reported does seem pretty good, but I’d like to see more details.
Previously, reports said SEPTA was not offering any raises in the first couple years. But it’s hard to imagine 11.5% being all back loaded in years 3-5 (3.5%, 4% & 4%?) with just a signing bonus (which has no compounding effect) up front.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:44 am
@lutton:
So far, I haven’t heard anything from the union/(Small) Willie Brown about why he walked out. It seems it just came down to them not being happy with the raise they were offered.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:48 am
SEPTA: Like a fat kid at McDonalds. They never get enough.
Willie Brown, President
Transport Workers Union Local 234
500 N. 2nd St Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19123.
Phone: 215-972-4140
Fax: 215-496-9041
http://www.twulocal234.com
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:51 am
Politically powerful unions in uncompetitive markets are as close to legalized extortion as you can get without actually BEING the IRS. They’ve been strangling Philly for decades and we let them get away with it because we wouldn’t want to admit that the stopped clock that is the Republican Party might actually turn out to be RIGHT twice a day.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:58 am
@MikeWebkist:
we let them get away with it because a lot of people in this city depend on septa for daily commuting. imagine how awful it’d be if everyone drove in from the suburbs everyday. the union knows that they’ve vital to a functioning city.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:04 pm
As someone who’s pro-union, I have to say I can’t say that I one hundred percent agree with the way the TWU handled this one. But I’m shocked at the amount of comments here that seem to think the workers should actually pay for their health benefits. Aren’t we in a state where the country is working for healthcare reform??? Why would the workers take a step back and start paying for their health benefits now? If anything I think this is where they need the public’s support.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:04 pm
@lightonfire:
no need to imagine. it’s happening. today.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:20 pm
@lightonfire: that’s exactly what I mean. They have us over a barrel because the only competition SEPTA has is driving your own damn car. I’m fine with unions at Wal-Mart, McDonalds, GM, and any other competitive industry, but when you only have one choice, the unions very quickly become the real bad guy.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
@mem728:
It is a step backwards. Hidden health care costs for employees is one of the big factors driving up costs for the whole system. Despite what some lobbyists and Dem congresspeople want you to believe, simply taxing the population to pay into a broken system is probably the worst form of socialized health care there can be. Fix the system, don’t keep paying into it.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:35 pm
it’s sort of hard to detail what i really hate about septa. for the most part, i have no problem with any employees. most of what i have a problem with is the overarching policies and practices of the company. such as:
1. no automated ticket/pass machines for regional rail or subways. tokens don’t count. they’re decades behind other transit systems on this one. even patco.
2. the fact that trains can be over an hour late and they hold no responsibility for you being late to work. and they still charge you.
3. how awful the subway stations smell. clean up the feces more often.
4. the buses that fly by you that aren’t picking up passengers.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Just to remind everyone exactly who is on strike right now:
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/SEPTAs-Loco-motion.html
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:42 pm
@mem728: While I agree that the healthcare system is fucked, it does not justify a strike that severely impacts the whole city. Very nearly everyone contributes to their health insurance. Times are tough all around. Why does SEPTA feel they get to be completely insulated from that? Money has to come from somewhere.
I would be much more likely to support a strike if it did not involve something so essential as public transport. Children are not getting to school, people are not getting to their doctors appointments, workers are not getting to the jobs they are barely hanging onto, and all the while we’re supposed to eat that shit sandwich with a smile and a supportive honk from our cars stuck in traffic. I don’t think so.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I appreciate unions but HATE the TWU and I support an aggressive state takeover of the entire organization (I’m not too fond of the management either).
Things you should know about SEPTA: for the fiscal year of 2008, SEPTA made $422mil by operating. However, expenses for the year were $1.1 BILLION (excluding depreciation, where the number is actually 1.376bil). Where does the rest of the money come from? YOUR TAX DOLLARS. 600 Million came from various subsidies – 560million of which came from your state and city taxes.
Despite those subsidies, SEPTA still runs a perpetual deficit – with the deficit for 2009, alone, is already at $5mil. Meanwhile, bus/trolley drivers who make 50K (before benefits) after only 4 years are striking because they are not guaranteed annual 4% raises a 33% increase in pension funds and are being asked to contribute more than 1% of the health benefits!
These demands are being made when large swaths of SEPTA’s ridership are contributing, on average, 27% of their health care premiums (not including out of pocket expenses like copays and deductibles) and are NOT getting raises – but getting laid off. FUCK YOU, TWU. State Takeover time, Ed. SEPTA unions should be held to the same standards as police, firemen and other state-subsidized, necessary public service entities.
If you really support unions, you would be actively reforming unions to give them their good name back – not endorsing this horse-shit extortion.
Civil rights?!?!? You went on strike on an election day, you bastards.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Just throwing this out there: how much of this strike is motivated by the rank and file drivers and booth-sitters. I just talked to a coworker whose friend is a bus driver. He said he received a text from SEPTA saying talks were going well and he didn’t know officially about the strike until less than a couple hours before.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:33 pm
@schmoe:
The union did not even let the members vote on the proposed contract before calling for the strike.
Great interview with Gov Rendell: http://www.kyw1060.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=4136610
Quick summary:
Contract was a “sensational” deal given the economy, and much more generous than the contract that Pittsburgh transit workers got BEFORE the recession.
Wage increase was actually 11.5% over 5 years (NOT including the compounding effect of yearly salary increases) and included an immediate $1,250 SIGNING BONUS.
The union did not budge on terms at all. SEPTA budged when Rendell put $6 million on the table from the PennDOT economic development fund… that is state-wide money that could be used to do things like actually improve public transit.
The Gov indicated that a possible repercussion is that the $6 million of state money will be pulled and a new contract will actually be worse for the TWU.
All in all, the strike is pretty unbelievable. If they signed the contract I would have been pissed. Given that they walked away, I am outraged.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I consider myself a pretty lefty pro-labor guy. So my message to the TWU is: if you’ve got a guy like me (who doesn’t even use septa regularly) pissed off at you and siding with management, you’re doing something wrong.
November 4th, 2009 at 1:31 am
I just went to 234’s site, and, surprise-surprise, try to click the “contact us” button. It doesn’t work! I guess poor Willie Brown has had enough of the mail and phone calls.
Willie, you’re a jerkoff, along with all you 234 idiots who support him as your president. You walked away from a fucking deal that ANYONE in this city would gladly accept, in a horrendous recession. Fuck all of you, and you union supporters, who are holding your underwriters, we the taxpayers, hostage. Considering the average household income in this town is half what you idiots (who typically make up only half of a whole household) earn, the only logical determination one can come to is that you’re clearly retarded. Yes, retarded.
Raises (we’ve all been laid off, taking a a pay cut, or taking a furlough if we aren’t a union member), pension contributions (who fucking has a pension anymore if you’re not in a union?) AND cheap healthcare (who pays less than 20% if you’re not in a union?)? Really? Grow a set and get off your high horse.
Septa, please call me – I’ll GLADLY take 30K a year to sit in a booth and push a button for those benefits, but ONLY if you give me exactly two dollars. Unfortunately the big bad Septa management can’t trust me to run the booth without stealing all the money.
November 4th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
My how the haterade towards SEPTA workers flows! I wonder what would happen in a completely hypothetical situation where really really rich people held out for tons of undeserved money.
Like, what if overpaid ceo’s and bankers somehow caused a dangerous world-wide recession by illegal gambling and then rubbed it in everyone’s faces by giving themselves bonuses with tax dollar bailouts? Why, I bet there’d be riots in the street! Wall Streeters would be afraid for their lives! Whole governments would fall! A new system that never allowed such nonsense would rise!
Or maybe not.
Maybe not because its just tons easier to hate on that lowly schmuck down the street. He causes you inconvenience while trying to better his lot (never mind the misery brought by those rich bastards.) Hate on the schmuck for earning two more dollars an hour than you do (while millions less than the wall street gambler). Hate on him for having union-given job security (while your corporation fires its anyone at will to make their investors richer).
Get a grip people – the resentment is severely misplaced.
November 4th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Still, I would gladly scab if they let me drive the El for a day.
November 4th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
articsplasher, how deep into your own colon was your ass last fall/winter? Oh yes, there was no where near an appropriate level of outrage toward the Wall Street bailout snafus.
Please.
Philebrity and its comments section, despite whatever inference your ass-planted brain makes based on what little light is able to creep through your rectum, is not the end all be all of human discourse. I think it’s fair to say the economic collapse of last fall was a little bit out league for Philebrity’s economics team. That does not say Philebrity’s readers got pissed off and vented so elsewhere.
I know you wanted to be the clever scold to the mob, but people’s passions can vector multiple channels. At least those of us whose necks aren’t clenched within our sphincters.
Seriously, there are cognitive proctologists who can assist your worldview to a level akin to “accurate.”
November 4th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
black(jack), chill out. just trying to put the SEPTA strike into a larger context, that’s all.
November 4th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
No heat here, arcticsplasher, just pointing out that someone who thinks the larger context needs to be pointed out must have a cerebrum contorted through gastrointestinal tract worldview.