Is Septa going to go on strike? Well that seems to be the popular question today! People in Philadelphia and the surrounding area are wondering if Septa is going to go on strike. They have a good reason to be worried about it though because a lot of people use Septa! In fact I was at the supermarket today and it was packed apparently because people were trying to get their shopping done before the 6pm deadline that was set for the Septa workers to go on strike.
Apparently the major bone of contention is about salaries and benefits and the last word that I heard from KYW news radio was that both the union and Septa are still negotiating and that they might possible have a meeting tomorrow - Sunday - which is highly unusual but both sides feel that the sooner they solve this thing the better.
So as of right now, both sides are still negotiating and the Septa buses and trolleys are still running! Whew!
Update!
November 3, 2009
I was shocked when I heard on the news that Septa has actually gone on strike! It seems that they made the decision to go on strike early in the morning and there were many commuters who had not heard the news of the strike and so they were caught off guard when they were trying to get to work!
I heard them interviewing them on the news and the people were saying that they wished that they had known that Septa had decided to go on strike so that they could make other plans on how they were going to get to work.
It seems that hospitals in the Philadelphia area have made contingency plans to help their workers get to work. I heard on the radio that one Philadelphia-area hospital would be opening more spaces for parking and charging $5 for their workers to park in those spaces.
Others commuters are taking cabs.
There's no telling how long this strike is going to last!
