Union vows to shut down SEPTA bus, trolley, subways unless demands met

🔴 SEPTA’s largest union warns a strike is “imminent"

🔴 No date was announced for a walkout or a contingency plan announced

🔴 Bus, trolley and subway service would be affected

Members of Transit Workers Union Local 234 representing SEPTA's largest union including train, bus and trolley operators are ready to call a strike after contract talks have not resulted in a new agreement.

TWU president John Samuelson  during a media briefing  Friday said a strike by its 5,000 members is "imminent" but did not announce a date for a walkout. A strike would affect all SEPTA bus and trolley service and the Market -Frankford and Broad Street lines. Mechanics, cashiers, maintenance people and custodians are also members of TWU Local 234.

The union on its Facebook page called SEPTA "incompetent" and said the agency's "unrelenting attacks on our health benefits and pensions will soon result in the TWU shutting down the 4th largest transit system in America."

"We are tired of SEPTA telling us that we can't and we won't. What I'm here to tell them is that we will. We will call a strike if they don't come back to the table with some reasonable and fair offers to our demands," union vice president Will Vera said.

SEPTA riders brace for impact

Issues still to be resolved are raises, pension increases, work condition changes and health care,

Talks have been going on since October when the contract expired. SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch told 6 ABC Action News that while recent talks have not been productive a "good foundation" has been laid in the form of issues where both sides agree.

The agency has not announced a contingency plan for it bus riders. Average daily ridership on all SEPTA modes of transportation was 779,701 in October.

The union in an update to members on Thurdsay advised them to refill their prescriptions in anticipation of a walkout.

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