SEPTA warns buses could shut down over union demands

The Philadelphia-area transit agency is warning riders that the city’s buses may shut down Thursday morning if transit workers stage a walk out or other action over demands for stronger coronavirus protections.

A spokesman for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority issued a statement Wednesday afternoon urging riders to have an alternate transportation plan, saying a planned action by the Transport Workers Union Local 234 “would likely force the suspension of bus service within the city of Philadelphia.” Spokesman Andrew Busch said the agency was looking to maintain limited operations on the Market-Frankford and Broad Street subway lines.

Mayor Jim Kenney said Wednesday talks are ongoing and he hoped “cooler heads will prevail” but suggested people, including essential workers such as nurses or other health care professionals, think about other means of transportation as a precaution.

Union President Willie Brown said the union, which represents about 5,300 transit workers including 5,000 SEPTA employees, had been talking to SEPTA administration about their safety concerns for a few weeks but put a list of eight demands in writing earlier this week.

Brown said late Wednesday that he couldn’t say what a planned “job action” would entail, but that SEPTA needed to show a good faith effort to protect workers in order to prevent it. He said workers would show up to work to take action, saying it would not be a strike.

The union’s demands include taking employees’ temperatures and sending those with fevers above 100.4 degrees home with pay, testing air quality on vehicles and further reducing the number of riders to 15 at any given time. Brown said because so many buses have been taken out of service, when bus routes run by large employers like UPS during a shift change, they are packed full.

Other demands include paying workers with preexisting conditions to quarantine at home, staggering shifts at the maintenance operation to make sure social distancing can occur, and classifying coronavirus-related deaths as work-related so families can collect workers compensation and death benefits.

Brown says of the about 100 workers who have tested positive for the virus, about 35 have been in the maintenance department including the three SEPTA employees who have died from coronavirus complications. He said one of the most important things the union is asking is more transparent and better contact tracing for sick employees, something he said the union has been trying to do because SEPTA has not.

“As late as last night, I talked to a guy who told me he had tested positive, and he had told me he called dispatch and let them know,” Brown said. “They didn’t ask him the last time he worked. They didn’t ask him who had come in contact with.... I asked him and we contacted everyone who had worked with him that shift.”

SEPTA earlier announced a reduction to “lifeline” service focused on getting essential workers to and from hospitals, grocery stores and other life-sustaining services. The company said Wednesday it has been working to balance the needs of customers and employees “while under tremendous financial stress due to revenue losses.”

Busch said the agency hasn’t had the written demands for long and wants to continue good-faith talks with the union.

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