Mediator to meet with SEPTA, union leaders to avoid strike; BLET members ratify Metra contract

A federal mediator will meet with Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) officials and leaders from two rail labor unions on Friday in an effort to avoid a commuter-rail strike, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported this morning.

The mediator's announcement followed a decision by SEPTA locomotive engineers and electrical workers to go on strike at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Labor leaders announced their decision following a June 7 letter from SEPTA General Manager Joseph Casey announcing that the agency will begin to implement its bargaining demands on Sunday.

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) National Division President Dennis Pierce called SEPTA's announcement "the latest attempt by the carrier in its nearly five-year effort to impose its will on SEPTA locomotive engineers." The strike would begin unless President Barack Obama establishes a Presidential Emergency Board, he said.

The electrical workers have been working without a contract since 2009, and the engineers have been doing the same since 2010, according to the Inquirer. The BLET represents 220 SEPTA engineers, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 744 represents 210 electrical workers.

Meanwhile, more than 96 percent of voting members of the BLET ratified a new five-year agreement with Metra on May 19. The agreement covers approximately 200 members.

The pact provides five general wage increases and two retroactive payments totaling a compounded value of 21.2 percent over the life of the agreement, which runs through Jan. 1, 2019. Members also will receive a $3,000 signing bonus. Wage increases will become effective July 1, and include retroactive payments for affected employees to July 1, 2012, according to a BLET press release.