Hey look! Another SEPTA strike! ::yawn::
Sorry folks, but yawn-o-rama here. Again? How many times has this come about in the past year? How many strikes have been averted? SEPTA, SEPTA, SEPTA, you need a new way to get attention.
Here’s some drama-mongering:
Six months of a tense truce between SEPTA and the Transport Workers Union will end Sunday when 4,600 members, who have worked without a contract since March and without a raise for nearly two years, will meet to discuss a strike.“We are tired of waiting,” declared Local 234 president Jeff Brooks in his notice to members, which appeared on the union’s Web site yesterday. “To get a fair contract, we are prepared to act. We can and will strike.”
So why this strike? Why this threat? Because SEPTA is asking their workers to do a small co-pay for the medical benefits.
Let’s step back, shall we? SEPTA employees don’t pay jackshit for healthcare right now. No co-pay. No out of pocket at all. And from what I understand, no “out of paycheque” expenses. In exchange for this, they get no vacation days and no paid sick leave. All days off or missed work is unpaid. Ok, so a downside for the upside.
Stepping back again, why do these folks deserve such good benefits? Over the past year, GPS systems have been installed in the buses. All of them. Functional GPS systems. This was done for two reasons: to track where the buses were and to keep the drivers from getting way lost. Now, because of this, when you can SEPTA’s local hotline, the folks in the “command center” can tell where buses are (or aren’t) on the route. I’ve done this twice, usually on Sunday mornings. The conversation usually goes something like this:
Me: Hi! I’ve been waiting for x bus for an hour now. According to the schedule, three buses should have some by y location by now. Is a driver out? Is someone sick?
Surprised SEPTA rep: Umm…hang on a second.
Me: Ok. ::hangs::
Surprised SEPTA rep: The driver is saying that he went through there 20 minutes ago…we can’t really…ummm…find him on the GPS system. Wait! No…we’ve got him. He’s…uhhhh…parked. Hang on.
At this point, they usually hang up on me because it’s pretty shameful to have to admit that a SEPTA driver is parked and lying to his bosses. This has happened at least twice. Usually on a weekend, but there are so many cases of buses or trolleys just not running or zooming past, despite being not-full and ready to take passengers. (I was late to work because of one such bus.)
Now. Having looked at that, do we really think these people need the best benefits in the city? Do they deserve them? As a whole, I don’t think so. Maybe I’m being selfish about where my fares go; but if I’m going to be paying for these benefits, I expect to get something out of that deal. Like maybe employees who do their job…?
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WHAT THE EFF?! That lazy sod should be terminated right now, and then hung, drawn, and quartered, and his remains dragged through the city streets as an example!
A SEPTA driver who is parked rather than driving his route should be fired, and hopefully the GPS system allows that to happen on occasion.
Maybe I’m just lucky, but my recent experiences riding SEPTA all over the city have been overwhelmingly positive. SEPTA is much better now than it was, say, 15 years ago when I was in high school. Overwhelmingly, I find SEPTA drivers to be on-time, friendly, and helpful. Yes, there are exceptions.
Here’s another perspective on the SEPTA strike. While there’s no doubt that SEPTA has problems and needs major changes, right now workers are being asked to pay the price for bloated management and inefficiency elsewhere in the organization, and that isn’t reasonable.
Although SEPTA has GPS on their buses, we can’t assume that the person using the computer has the right bus number, the right route, the right bus, the right driver … A person who says “the bus is parked” might be looking at the wrong bus, a broken down bus, or a bus from another route, or might just not be good at using computers. They would never admit THAT any more than a driver who has stopped to take a nap. It’s easier for everyone to blame the driver (or the bus) than to admit what’s actually wrong.
Believe me, any driver who simply parks would be found by other drivers on the route who don’t want to do double-work picking up all those extra irate people.
It appears that many folks are woefully misinformed about the benefits that SEPTA employees receive ( and I say employees because there are almost 10 thousand people employed by SEPTA, yet only half are members of the transport workers union) All of these 10 thousand or so employees do pay for services rendered. There are co-pays every time that a plan member visits a doctor or gets an x-ray or fills a prescription.
Suzanne, in her earlier post, is misinformed about this issue. And for her information all employees receive vacation and holidays. In fact, most workers in the industrialized countries get the same benefit.
If Suzanne does not get any of these benefits, she should join a Union or does she think we should all sign up to become slaves.
It appears as if you are misinformed about the effectiveness of unions. I believe they have long-since passed their value in most jobs. I was in one for five years and so was my little sister, and it was quite ineffective when she needed them. Of course, it is great if you want a lot of political literature in the mail in November!!!
To those people who express support or sympathy for the SEPTA drivers threatening to go on strike I say you obviously have nothing to lose. Thousands of riders on the City and suburban lines do have a lot to lose. We can lose our paychecks, our jobs, the roofs over our heads and the food in our mouths. We are held hostage by SEPTA as it currently stands. I personally have been harassed by drivers when I’ve questioned their “right” to strike and their reasoning. One driver informed me recently when I objected to the lateness of the bus that I could “just wait until you have nothing to get you where you’re going”. That statement shows the arrogance of SEPTA from both it’s drivers and management.
I have lived in New York City most of my life. The public transit in that city has undergone vast improvements over the years. Their attitudes improved as well. The MTA would respond to a delay complaint with at least a letter and a free token. SEPTA representatives give you nothing but a meaningless apology if anything at all. The service can be late, perhaps on time but NEVER, NEVER early. Buses will sit at a station stop if early but can show up 5 to 15 minutes late without question or action taken. I’ve been informed by SEPTA customer service reps that they have no way of knowing where a bus is at any particular moment of the day. Oh really?
It’s nothing new that a so called improvement like the GPS system on SEPTA buses either breaks down or…maybe… never gets used. I’ve been cursed at by drivers or just plain ignored when asking their reasons for being late. I think some of the former protesth too much. Perhaps they were up to no good or worse doing nothing at all. This is what we have to pay extra ZONE FARES for?!!
To the arrogance of SEPTA and its drivers I add to the equation the arrogance of the auto industry and those who drive. Most drivers reject things such as car-pooling and using public transit when it isn’t necessary to bring thier vehicle with just them in it. If more car drivers opted for public transit that would send a message to those who fund it that there is a need to increase that funding. That doesn’t happen because the system is so inconvenient. It is inconvenient because the powers that be don’t see enough people riding public transit to suit them. It’s a catch-22 situation that has to end. We need an end to the Zone system, an end to limitations on Sunday travel and an end to the arrogance SEPTA and its employees. The truth about public transit in Southeastern PA must set us hostages free.
I have an idea - bring in the cabbies as scabs. They’ll be so overjoyed to be making any money at all they’ll gladly forgo benefits. And the way they drive, everyone will get where they’re going a lot faster. Except maybe for all the people they run over.
Like a septa driver doesn’t drive carlessly…
SEPTA has earned its stripes;in the mid ’70’s the same cacophony of blame, anecdote, and sly distrust wallowed thru the mean Rizzo racketed streets of my beloved home town. I was in the midst of the dire strikes and the 9 and 73 sixers and three decades later I’m hearing this via blogdom! Come on Philly represent and deal with it;save the city! viva West Philly and high praise for Central High!
perhaps we should pretent we are septa employees for a minute and imagine no raise 2years, no cost of living for 7 years,no retirement raise 5 years, 12 hour day but 9 hour pay, 14 minute lunch, rude people all day, drivers who cut you off, sound like fun join today we have a real shortage of people because no one won’t to work here
It’s about 2 1/2 hours until I hear about the strike decision. I do not take public transportation, but all 450 home health care workers that I work with do. About 800 elderly Philadelphians are counting on these 450 people to come to their houses tomorrow and provide them with the help that not even their family members will provide for them. And if Septa strikes? What of them? Does no one in the Union, or any Union for that matter, care what a strike does to other people in it’s ripple effect? I hope a few septa drivers will stay home while on strike and care for their ederly family members since they are preventing anyone else from being able to do so. Somehow, I highly doubt that will happen.
I work for a foster care agency in Philadelphia and many of the families we work with rely on SEPTA to get anywhere. Two parents that I work with are basically going to lose their jobs, because they live in the Southwest section of the city and cannot get to their jobs reasonably. One of them has a full cast on her leg as well. I believe there are only 3 regional rail stops in SW philly: 49th St., Angora, and Eastwick. If you live in the public housing development at Cobbs Creek and Greenway Ave. you are truly screwed.