ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 10
Keith Leonard,
Esquire
A
lot of people still seem to be
surprised at the recent political turn of events. In the
weeks preceding election-day, a labor
dispute was brewing in Philadelphia
involving public transportation workers. Since 1985, I have ridden on the
best and the worst public transportation system in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Not surprisingly to
commuters in this region, the best and
worst systems are in fact the same
system, known locally by the acronym
SEPTA (the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority).
The multiple forms of public transportation operating under SEPTA include buses, subways, elevated trains
and trolleys, as well as trains which
travel throughout the region (including locations in New Jersey and Delaware) with multiple stops within the
City of Philadelphia. The SEPTA employees who operate the trains belong
to a different union from the employees who operate the public transportation within the City limits. It was this
latter union which had voted to strike
as of November 1st if a new collective bargaining agreement was not
reached by that date. Of course, as of
November 1st no such agreement had
been reached and the union went on
strike. One of the reported principal
issues leading to the strike involved
an impasse over increases in pension
benefits for the union employees. The
effect of the strike was immediate and
substantial for City residents who relied upon public transportation to get
to and from work and for other aspects
of their daily lives. Since the trains
were still operating many residents
began using them as their sole means
of public transportation, dramatically increasing the ridership on those
trains and causing significant delays
10
ACTION * March 2017
Sending a message
in the train schedules. However, there
were also many residents who now
had no means of public transportation to commute to work, reducing the
labor force available at many places
within the City including hospitals.
Thus, a strike by about 5,000 employees was having an immediate and
materially adverse effect on hundreds
of thousands persons, both inside the
City and in the surrounding region.
Of course, the timing of this strike
raised another issue outside of any
collective bargaining agreement or the
impact on the daily lives of the many
persons using some form of public
transportation. The strike started a little over a week prior to Election-Day,
with an immediate concern (apparently more so than all other concerns)
about the effect of the strike on voters
being able to get to polling places.
With such a substantial and negative impact on the lives of so many
people due to a strike, one might assume that mutual goodwill and regard for others would quickly have
resulted in an agreement between the
union and management. One might
further assume that politicians would
be rushing to the fray to push the parties toward some agreement for the
further benefit of their electorate (and
perhaps cynically, to garner some free
publicity). If so, one would be wildly
optimistic. While there were some
politicians who did get involved in
some fashion (two of whom won reelection by absurd margins over their
opponents), there were others (at the
city, state and federal levels and in
both major parties) who, when their
offices were contacted, seemed indifferent to the strike's impact on their
electorate.
The strike did end before ElectionDay, but not before it revealed an
almost total lack of concern by the
union, management and far too many
politicians about the people who rely
upon a public transportation system
for many aspects of their daily lives.
Among the many explanations offered for President Trump's electoral
success, one explanation which this
author believes has some serious credence is a push back on feelings of
frustration and disenchantment with a
political system which has been controlled and mismanaged by "traditional politicians" over far too much of
the lifetimes of most of the electorate.
According to a Pew Research Center
study in December 2015, the American middle class was no longer (as it
had been for more than forty years)
the nation's economic majority; it is
now matched in number by those in
the economic tiers above and below
it. Perhaps a sizable portion of the
population was therefore simply mad
as hell and was not going to take it
anymore. We shall see if that lesson
was well-learned in the coming years
and the impact on transportation, public and private. ❆
Remember that laws are constantly
changing and are often not uniform
throughout the United States. Do
not place unqualified reliance on
the information in this article.
Always contact legal counsel for
detailed advice.
If you have a particular issue,
law or problem you would like to
see addressed in a future column,
please contact me at KLeonard@
LeonardSciolla.com, or Leonard,
Sciolla, Hutchison, Leonard &
Tinari, LLP, 215-567-1530.
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ACtion Magazine - March 2017
Outlook
Service Port
Leonard's Law
Virtual View
Cooling Corner
Member Profile
Radiator service and repair
What you don't know can hurt your diesel engine
Industry News
Association News
New Products and Services
Last Watch
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - Cover1
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - Cover2
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 3
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 4
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 5
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - Outlook
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 7
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - Service Port
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 9
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - Leonard's Law
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 11
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - Virtual View
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 13
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - Cooling Corner
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 15
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - Member Profile
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 17
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 18
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 19
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - Radiator service and repair
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 21
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 22
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 23
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 24
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 25
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - What you don't know can hurt your diesel engine
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 27
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 28
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 29
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 30
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 31
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 32
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - Industry News
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 34
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - Association News
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - New Products and Services
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - 37
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - Last Watch
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - Cover3
ACtion Magazine - March 2017 - Cover4
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