By Tom MacDonald

– After five years of talks, the engineers who operate SEPTA’s regional rail trains have a tentative deal with the transit agency. Meanwhile, further talks are scheduled with 5,000 other workers who drive SEPTA buses, trolleys and subways.

Representing 200 members, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen said Monday that SEPTA has agreed to recommendations made by an emergency board appointed by President Barack Obama.

“There was a recommendation for an additional payment to the locomotive engineers to maintain the historical wage relationship that the locomotive engineers have with the conductors,” said union vice president Steven Bruno.

In a statement late Monday, SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said the proposed five-year agreement covers July 15, 2010, to July 14, 2015.

The BLET members will receive a $1,250 lump sum signing bonus and compensation that includes an 11.5 percent wage increase — 8.5 percent immediately upon contract ratification and an additional 3 percent in April 2015.

According to the union, all raises in the five-year contract add up to 13.3 percent.

As it’s reached a tentative agreement with the engineers, SEPTA has set more talks this week in hopes of averting a walkout by members of the Transport Workers Union.

Union officials say the key sticking points are pensions, health care concessions and the handling of grievances.

The union, which represents about 5,000 SEPTA employees, has been without a contract since March.

A strike is possible unless SEPTA agrees to a short-term contract, said union president Willie Brown. He said his side is doing its best to prevent a walkout.

“It is very possible,” Brown said. “The ironic thing is … I think it’s more about egos than economics and that’s never good for negotiations.”

SEPTA is hoping for the best from this week’s negotiating sessions, Williams said.

“Face-to-face negotiations are the best way to talk about the issues and see where each side stands,” she said.

Despite their tentative deal, the engineers union still has some issues with SEPTA, but Bruno said those can be addressed outside contract negotiations.

“There are excessively long days at work; there’s interrupted work schedules. SEPTA has not been able to maintain adequate staffing to address these concerns,” he said. “They have been unable to address these matters in a substantive way … it has plagued them for years.”

The engineers went on a one-day strike this summer.

Source – http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/73889-septa-commuter-train-engineers-strike-deal-?linktype=hp_impact

By Chris Satullo

– Since 1968, when Pennsylvania started allowing its governors to run for re-election, voters have returned every sitting governor for a second term.

This streak may be about to end.

Polls show Democrat Tom Wolf leading the incumbent, Republican Tom Corbett, by around 15 percentage points.

How did Corbett pull off this feat, persuading the state’s voters to ponder such an historic act of rejection?

Here’s a list of five factors:

1) The Sandusky Scandal

The horrific child abuse by the former Penn State assistant football coach has cut Corbett in two ways. People upset that Jerry Sandusky’s crimes took so long to be stopped blame Corbett’s performance as attorney general. But Penn State loyalists are furious at Corbett because they feel, in his role as university trustee, he threw the sainted Joe Paterno under the bus. Soon after the trustees fired Joe Pa, he died. Rare is the controversy that leads people on each side of the divide to be equally irked with the same person.

2) Flunking Business 101

Philosophically, Corbett belongs to the “let’s run government like a business” camp. Well, a first premise of business is that when you have leverage, you exploit it.

As recently as an interview in WHYY’s studio on Friday, the governor has kept on insisting that levying any more taxes on Marcellus Shale drillers would have chased them away. How, governor, how? The natural gas bonanza sits underneath your state, not Iowa. The drillers … were … not … going … anywhere.

When it came to the shale, Corbett had all the leverage a governor could want. But, in thrall to American Enterprise Institute boilerplate about the evils of corporate taxation, he squandered it.

3) Weaker schools

Corbett’s term has featured massive disinvestment in public education. Yes, as his supporters say, the basic state subsidy to schools has risen on his watch, but it has not kept pace with rising costs.

Meanwhile, other aid programs – including a charter reimbursement payment vital to Philadelphia – have been scrapped.

No doubt the man arrived in office in the midst of tough fiscal times, with the global recession blowing a hole in the state budget.

But Corbett was rare among governors in being blessed with a potentially healing windfall: shale revenues. Unwilling to seize it, he chose instead to let school budgets shrink. All across the state, unhappy school parents feel the effects and lament this missed opportunity.

4) Foxes in the henhouse

The governor filled many key cabinet and regulatory posts – including environmental protection – with emissaries from the business sectors. Since Day One, their brief seems to have been to serve as concierges for business interests, helping them navigate around pesky regulations. As former U.S House Majority Leader Eric Cantor learned in his recent congressional loss, even some very conservative voters are getting tired of seeing their interests take a back seat to Wall Street’s.

5) The indifferent leader

When you meet him, Corbett seems pleasant and personable. But he has little gift for political stagecraft and little taste for some core challenges of his office, like getting the four squabbling caucuses of the legislature to agree on anything. It’s hard to argue, in general terms, with his choice of two big agenda items to push – pension reform and getting rid of state liquor stores. But his pushing has not amounted to much action.

Before his interviews at WHYY Friday, the governor eagerly and winningly showed off photos of his young grandchildren.

He seemed like a man secretly looking forward to spending more time with those kids pretty soon.

Source: http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/73861-five-reasons-corbett-seems-headed-to-an-historic-loss?linktype=hp_topstory

Brief PhillyLabor.com Editorial – Adding #6 – Anti – Worker – Corbett is Bad for working families. Desire to privatize industries that are already successful and lay off thousands of hard working men and women in the process….etc.

By John Kopp

– PHILADELPHIA >> Angered by political advertisements negatively portraying Democratic state Senate candidate John Kane as a union boss, union leaders threatened Thursday to cease contributing to the campaigns of Delaware County Republican candidates.

Union leaders from the Philadelphia Building Trades Council blasted attack advertisements by Republican candidate Tom McGarrigle as a smear campaign. They said it was hypocritical of Republicans to accept union campaign contributions and then portray Kane as a union boss sympathetic to intimidation tactics.

One after another, the union heads vouched for the integrity of John Kane and bemoaned the Delaware County Republican Party during a 30-minute press conference at the union hall of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98.

Kane, the business manager of Plumbers Union Local 690, and McGarrigle, the chairman of Delaware County Council and the owner of an auto repair shop, are running for the open seat in the 26th Senatorial District. The race is considered one of the most competitive in the state.

The union leaders claimed the building trades have contributed more than $1.7 million to Republican campaigns since 2010. They pledged that money will dry up due to the McGarrigle ads.

“Now, that will change,” Local 98 Business Manager John Dougherty said. “It will change two-fold. This type of leadership that is scared of an open race not only doesn’t deserve money, but it deserves competition for years to come.”

Delaware County GOP Chairman Andy Reilly said county Republicans have an “excellent working relationship” with the trade unions.

“I’m very proud of the record of the Delaware County Republican officeholders, which has created thousands of jobs for the men and women of the Delaware County trade unions,” Reilly said.

The McGarrigle campaign is airing a television ad that criticizes Kane for not returning a $7,500 contribution from Ironworkers Union Local 401. It also has issued a mailer listing the same criticisms.

Ten union members, including business manager Joe Dougherty, were indicted in February for allegedly using violent intimidation tactics to force construction contractors to hire union ironworkers.

McGarrigle accepted a $500 contribution from the Local 401 in 2009, but donated the money to the Delaware County Domestic Abuse Project after learning of the indictments.

Kane and union leaders emphasized that his contribution was made on behalf of the entire union membership, noting members voluntarily make wage donations to a political action committee charged with supporting favorable candidates.

“I haven’t done anything wrong,” Kane said. “I accepted money from the ironworkers’ members — let’s not forget that. It’s not Joe Dougherty’s money, its his members’.

“I support Local 401 as I support every labor union and every working class person from Delaware County. A rising tide floats all boats ­— let’s not forget that.”

The McGarrigle campaign stood behind its ad campaign. Spokeswoman Virginia Davis questioned Kane’s leadership, claiming Kane failed to condemn the violent actions of the indicted ironworkers and stood by silently while six of the 10 indicted members pleaded guilty.

“He refused to return the thousands of dollars of tainted money he took from Joe Dougherty,” Davis wrote in an email. “The ad is truthful and obviously effective. Why is John Kane hiding behind Philadelphia special interests?”

Union leaders refuted the notion that contributions from Local 401 are tainted, repeatedly saying the donations are on behalf of the entire union membership.

Kane spokesman Aren Platt wrote in an email that “of course John Kane would never condone any illegal action or act of violence.”

The union leaders withheld judgement on Dougherty, noting he is innocent until proven guilty, while condemning the alleged actions of the indicted. Kane stood by his friendship with Dougherty.

“When you find out you have a friend who is sitting on top of the world, it’s a great time to be his friend,” Kane said. “But when your friend is struggling and everyone walks away, a true friend is going to stand beside him.”

Davis also criticized Kane for failing to support legislation that would remove an exemption protecting unions engaged in labor disputes from being prosecuted for stalking and harassment. Kane said in March that the bill “sneakily attempts to confuse the essential distinction between picketing and harassment.”

The gathered union leaders included Pat Gillespie, business manager of the Philadelphia Trades Council; Pat Eiding, president of the Philadelphia AFL-CIO; and Ryan Boyer, business manager of the Laborers District Council of Philadelphia.

Source: http://www.delcotimes.com/government-and-politics/20141010/union-leaders-slam-campaign-ads-targeting-kane

– “The School Reform Commission voted yesterday to unilaterally impose contract terms on the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. The Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO believes that this action is an outrage. Leaders at the SRC have spoken frequently about the need for everyone to work together to solve the District’s problems. But today Superintendent Hite, Chairman Green, and the rest of the SRC abandoned that pledge. Instead of working with the PFT through the collective bargaining process, the SRC has simply said, “Take it or leave it.”

The School District needs the collective dedication, wisdom, and input of all of its employees to solve the problems caused by Governor Corbett and the SRC. The best way to encourage that dedication, and get that wisdom and input, is through bargaining in good faith with the teachers’ elected representatives. Where I come from, what the SRC did yesterday is a destruction of collective bargaining. The labor movement in Philadelphia sees this for what it is, and we’re ready to support the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, however they choose to respond to this outrageous decision.”

PHILADELPHIA–“The announcement by the School Reform Commission that they were cancelling the PFT contract and imposing terms is every bit as outrageous as the manner in which they scheduled and held their ‘public’ meeting.

“In August 2013, the PFT put contract proposals on the table that would have saved the district millions of dollars and averted the current budget deficit. Governor Corbett’s SRC is clearly not interested in negotiating with the educators of Philadelphia. They have been spending vast amounts of time and money on union-busting strategy sessions with their lawyers, and not nearly enough time working with the PFT on how to restore programs and services to our schoolchildren.

“The SRC has been quick to point out what school district employees in nearby counties pay for health care. What they fail to mention is that Philadelphia’s educators are paid far less than their suburban counterparts, and spend thousands of their own dollars for classroom supplies for their students.

“The SRC’s tactics are shameful, and they know it. Why else would they promote the SRC meeting with a barely legible newspaper advertisement rather than their standard practice of putting it on the District’s web site?

“This is not an effort by the SRC to address the fiscal crisis. This is the Corbett Administration’s attempt to vilify the PFT in order distract from his horrible record on education funding and boost his chances of re-election. Today’s action is a last-ditch effort by the Corbett Administration to weaken the standing of our educators with Philadelphia’s parents and community members.

“The PFT is closely examining the district’s legal pleadings and will be fighting the SRC’s latest attack on the teachers and school staff of Philadelphia.”

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Source: https://www.facebook.com/PhilaFedofTeachers