SEPTA, the public transit here in Philadelphia went on strike as soon as the World Series went back to NY. The walkout of the 5100 drivers and mechanics in the union has completely shut down all trolleys, buses and subways here in Philadelphia... And cut shut my painting time.

The union has been working without a contract since the beginning of the year. When talks of a strike began, they were offered a contract that most people are drooling over. Essentially an 11% raise over the next 5 years (union members already making on average $50k / year) with a $1250 instant signing bonus, 1% contribution to health benefits and increase in pension (ya, wtf? I don't have a ****in pension).

Normally when my gf has the car and I don't ride in, I take the subway and a bus to / from the office. When they began the strike, I was on standby at work. Which means I had my work truck as a vehicle. However standby ended yesterday. I have my truck to get to work. But no means back from work (unless I feel like walking 50+ blocks). So my bike MUST be up and running come Tuesday morning. Luckily I can clearcoat tonight and put the fairings back on tomorrow (would rather have 48 hrs to dry ).

Unfortunately my plans to redo the tank and a fairing will have to wait. The tank came out really bad for some reason (prolly a lack of sanding) and will have to be sanded down, primed and painted all over again. And the right lower fairing just didn't satisfy me.

Here's the latest strike news

 

As a fellow Philadelphian, I too am affected by the strike. I was planning to put my bike up for the winter/cooler weather season ahead (even though we are getting nice weather to ride in now) because school is taking up a lot of my time and riding with only a couple of my books isn't going work right now. (I need to take most of my books with me to school every day to study and all won't fit in my bag that I tie to my bike). I would typically ride the subway to school.

I think the union president will not be re-elected as he is turning down a monster deal and 7 million dollars of guaranteed state funds.

My suggestion is not to rush your paint job and ride naked. There is no real downside to riding naked, except the look (and of course if you get caught in the rain).

Good luck with whatever you do.

 

Nah... I can rush it since this was really a practice run.

I'm lucky in the fact that I have transportation. Last time they went on strike I worked at an office right off the regional rails so all I had to do was walk 10 blocks . When this is over, I'm cussing out the first bus driver stupid enough to do anything but drive the bus

 

I live in Philly, too - this whole thing was handled poorly of course. I don't have a strong feeling one way or the other about unions, but in the current economy I would think that the offer on the table would be a good enough one to get it done. Especially when so many people are out of work right now.

 

Sorry for a tangent here but are you saying that SEPTA is striking as a result of the Phillies losing the World Series????



Sorry for your inconvenience bud, but that's effing hilariously stupid if I'm understanding that correctly.

 

Nah... the Septa folks were kind enough to finish providing transportation to the stadium for the Phillies fans up until the conclusion of the final game played in Philly, which was game 5 I think. Then they went on strike...

 

No. The TWU (Transit Worker's Union) intentionally waited until the series left Philadelphia. They went on strike at 03:00 right after the game with 0 warning, stranding many morning commuters. Many public transit commuters woke up to find out they had no way to get to work that day, forcing callouts across the city.

If they had gone on strike while the World Series was in Philadelphia, as they had originally stated they would, the city (and state) would prolly have told them to go phuq themselves and started taking proposals from private bus companies. The stadium is located in South Philadelphia, right at the end of the Broad Street subway. Most of the stadium workers take the subway to get to work. Many would have been unable to report to work during the WS if SEPTA had not been running. If those workers had not been able to report, the WS would have been seriously compromised. Philadephia and Pennsylvania would have suffered a major embarassment.

Also many people use the subway to go to the games as well. Parking / traffic in South Philadelphia was horrendous during the Dallas vs Eagles game this Sunday at Lincoln Financial field, also on the Broad Street subway line. Admittedly a World Series ticket holder would have found a way, any way, to get to the games if the subway wasn't running (tickets costed too much to waste) But again it would have given an abysmal impression of the city to the spectators, many of which were visitors from out of town.

The union leadership is stupid. But they're not suicidal.

 

lol Ok I'm with ya now, so they're actually pretty reasonable then... relatively speaking I guess. But damn, to strike on that kind of pay and benefits for DRIVING BUSES AND TRAIN CARS. I have a college degree, have a good job with a pension fund watching assets, and would not be too up-in-arms with those benefits.

This is why I hate unions. I'll bet there's a lot of parallels that can be drawn between this situation and what has been challenging GM/Ford. Lots of legacy benefits to dish out for pensions right now and on top of that a strike to raise salaries 11% on a $50k average salary... I'd hate to be sitting on the side of the city in these negotiations... that's a tough spot, especially in this economy with revenues in rough shape as it is..

 

Well SEPTA went back to work. The deal they settled for was what they were offered + a litte more. The city is concerned that the deal SEPTA got will influence negotiations with other city unions (Police & Fire Depts). The mayor has already said the deal given the TWU can't be repeated.

Gave the finger to a bus driver today. Both for being a greedy *** and for trying to merge into my lane. Guess things are back to normal