PAT won't strike

From Glenn. Thanks!

This morning [Saturday], the Port Authority of Allegheny County [PAT] and Local 85 of the Amalgamated Transit Union announced a tentative three-year labor contract, which averts a Pittsburgh transit work stoppage that could have come as early as "Black
Friday," the day after Thanksgiving Day. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell announced the settlement at his Downtown Pittsburgh office, in the State Office Building, after negotiations which lasted more than 47 straight hours [with only one short interruption in the negotiations].

The tentative contract, which will be reviewed for adoption by the union membership on Sunday, would run for three years. Members would receive a three percent wage hike in each year of the contract. However, the union did agree that one per cent of the annual salary would be the employee's contribution to health care costs.

These provisions mirror the recent settlement in the Philadelphia transit strike, except the Philadelphia labor contract will last for four years.

Governor Rendell, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, and PAT officials lauded the agreement as providing a badly needed $25.5 million reduction in PAT's deficit. Port Authority Acting Chief Executive Officer Dennis Veraldi announced that ratification of this agreement would result in no increase in public transit fares.

This past week in Philadelphia, the transit union rank-and-file ratified the November 7 tentative labor agreement, which had ended a week-long Philadelphia transit strike, on Tuesday. The Board of Directors of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority [SEPTA] approved the agreement on Thursday.

More about the proposed settlement, in the Pittsburgh transit labor negotiations.

More about the conclusion of the Philadelphia transit strike, and the ratification of the settlement.