SEPTA on Strike!
SEPTA is on strike, leaving about 400,000 riders without transit in Philadelphia. The regional rail system continues to operate.
The strike is, like all other strikes, over money, but one of the key contentions is whether union members have to pay an 5% of their health care insurance premium for complete health care coverage. GIven that, accordng to the terms of the bargain that was rejected, union workers would receive a 3% annual salary raise, a full pension plan, and have to pay only an average $5 a month for health insurance, I fear the union is getting a bit greedy here. The majority of U.S. workers have no pension plan and pay a lot more than that for health insurance. And this is the union's 9th strike since 1975.
I'm generally one to side with unions, especially when they're fighting large corporations, but we're talking about a transit system that habitually loses money, and is still offering to provide its workers with significantly better benefits than most employees get. Perhaps union members could use to take a look at the rest of the world?
Read more here, here, here, and here.
Post Author:
amg | 10:11 AM |
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