Evening wrap-up on the SEPTA strike, Day Two

November 4, 6:44 PMPhiladelphia Public Transportation ExaminerSandy Smith

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Sandy Smith

Now it's getting personal.

At a midday news conference, Transport Workers Union Local 234 President Willie Brown said that while Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell would be welcome to participate if and when talks between the union and SEPTA resume, he would under no circumstances negotiate with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter in the room.

Brown called Nutter out at the press event, calling him just about everything but late for dinner. "Little Caesar," he said, hogged the microphone and misled the public by stating flatly that a strike was off the table in a weekend news conference announcing the continuation of talks past a previously set strike deadline. "While I do not respect the man, I respect his position," he said initially, but then went on to praise Rendell for bringing something to the table and blast Nutter for bringing "nothing other than dissension.

"He has destroyed any good faith we had in trying to negotiate a contract, and he's cut out," Brown said.

The "something" Rendell bought to the table, it turns out, was $6 million in state money to enable SEPTA to sweeten contributions to the employee pension fund. Good though that was, Brown told the Philadelphia Business Journal, it wasn't enough. According to Brown, SEPTA has funded its employee pension fund at 52 percent while the fund for management is 90 percent funded, and SEPTA has underfunded the employees' pension fund for 20 years.

SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney told the Journal Brown's claims were "a red herring," that union members were aware of the funding situation, and that employees were in no danger of losing their pensions.

Meantime, other gripes continue to circulate through the grapevine. A Norristown High-Speed Line operator reported via a relative's posting to an e-mail discussion group today that another stumbling block was a SEPTA proposal to contract out subway-elevated cashiers and janitors. This report has not been independently corroborated, but it should give an idea of just how poisonous the atmosphere is even within those parts of the SEPTA system still running. If true, this is something the union could not possibly accept; if not, it's the manifestation of a history of suspicion on the TWU's part -- a history that will be discussed in a future report.

For up-to-the-second information on those SEPTA services that are operating, follow SEPTA on Twitter. This article contains basic information about services that are runnning and those that are idle; for more details about service disruptions, visit the SEPTA Web site.