Spring Break
Editorial: City on Its Knees
Editorial Board
Issue date: 11/4/05 Section: Ed-Op
- Page 1 of 1
Everyone hates to be inconvenienced, especially when it can be prevented. This week, the Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority Transport Workers Union strike has had far-reaching, inconveniencing effects across the city.
Traffic, which on a good day is already terrible, has deteriorated to the point where walking around the city is faster. Cabs, which in the past have honked at anyone that remotely appeared in need of a ride, are all occupied and can no longer be found with their lights on. Businesses in locations mainly served by the public transportation options that are not operating are dealing with a drastic decrease in business. And citizens of the City of Brotherly Love are spending much more of an already not-long-enough day transporting themselves to and from work, school or play - and sitting in traffic, going nowhere.
The unions on strike, however, don't seem to care about this. They are unwilling to work with SEPTA administration to end the strike as quickly as possible. "We're not talking to them anymore," said union spokesman Bob Bedard on the fourth day of the strike. Such a comment seems inappropriate in a city on its knees because of the action of the same union workers. The last strike lasted 40 days, and comments such as this one can only serve to fuel the fear that history will repeat itself. We don't need fear - we need one of our most valued commodities, transportation.
Union President Jeff Brooks has asked for the city's forgiveness at the onset of the strike. Who asks for forgiveness while crippling an entire city?
Enough about the effects. The strike centers on the issues that most contemporary strikes do - health benefits and pay raises. SEPTA has offered a plan that, with slight modification, should benefit both the organization and its workers. The nine percent gradual pay raise is adequate, but we understand the striking worker's anger over the flat five percent health-premium contribution. In such a system, a manager making $100,000 per year would pay as much as a worker making only $10,000 a year for health insurance. The proposed one percent variable plan would be much more beneficial. In this plan, the $100,000 salary employee would pay $1,000 towards health insurance while the $10,000 employee would pay a proportional $100. Many SEPTA employees, however, are unwilling to give up their free-health-care benefit. Unfortunately, the high cost of health insurance prohibits a private-sector company like SEPTA from paying all of its employee's benefits. The union needs to realize this and work with SEPTA towards a speedy compromise.
The Philadelphia Inquirer recently reported that Philadelphia is one of the biggest and greatest college cities in the United States. Many of our students do not own cars, so SEPTA is their means of commuting to school or work and socializing within this vast city. It is unfortunate that students, many of us visitors to the city, along with nearly regular 500,000 riders, must be treated as a means to an end by the transportation unions. Get the City of Brotherly Love back up on its feet - compromise and end the strike now, Transport Workers Union.
Traffic, which on a good day is already terrible, has deteriorated to the point where walking around the city is faster. Cabs, which in the past have honked at anyone that remotely appeared in need of a ride, are all occupied and can no longer be found with their lights on. Businesses in locations mainly served by the public transportation options that are not operating are dealing with a drastic decrease in business. And citizens of the City of Brotherly Love are spending much more of an already not-long-enough day transporting themselves to and from work, school or play - and sitting in traffic, going nowhere.
The unions on strike, however, don't seem to care about this. They are unwilling to work with SEPTA administration to end the strike as quickly as possible. "We're not talking to them anymore," said union spokesman Bob Bedard on the fourth day of the strike. Such a comment seems inappropriate in a city on its knees because of the action of the same union workers. The last strike lasted 40 days, and comments such as this one can only serve to fuel the fear that history will repeat itself. We don't need fear - we need one of our most valued commodities, transportation.
Union President Jeff Brooks has asked for the city's forgiveness at the onset of the strike. Who asks for forgiveness while crippling an entire city?
Enough about the effects. The strike centers on the issues that most contemporary strikes do - health benefits and pay raises. SEPTA has offered a plan that, with slight modification, should benefit both the organization and its workers. The nine percent gradual pay raise is adequate, but we understand the striking worker's anger over the flat five percent health-premium contribution. In such a system, a manager making $100,000 per year would pay as much as a worker making only $10,000 a year for health insurance. The proposed one percent variable plan would be much more beneficial. In this plan, the $100,000 salary employee would pay $1,000 towards health insurance while the $10,000 employee would pay a proportional $100. Many SEPTA employees, however, are unwilling to give up their free-health-care benefit. Unfortunately, the high cost of health insurance prohibits a private-sector company like SEPTA from paying all of its employee's benefits. The union needs to realize this and work with SEPTA towards a speedy compromise.
The Philadelphia Inquirer recently reported that Philadelphia is one of the biggest and greatest college cities in the United States. Many of our students do not own cars, so SEPTA is their means of commuting to school or work and socializing within this vast city. It is unfortunate that students, many of us visitors to the city, along with nearly regular 500,000 riders, must be treated as a means to an end by the transportation unions. Get the City of Brotherly Love back up on its feet - compromise and end the strike now, Transport Workers Union.
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