Philadelphia transit workers went on strike early Tuesday, halting bus, trolley, light rail, and subway transportation in the city and stoking fears of a prolonged work stoppage that could create headaches for voters on Election Day in the state's most populous city.
Jamie Horwitz, a spokesman for the Transportation Workers Union Local 234 (TWU 234), the union staging the strike, told ABC News that he doesn't anticipate the strikes to impact voter turnout even if they last beyond the election.
SEPTA, the region's public transportation authority, and members of TWU 234, a union belonging to the AFL-CIO, failed to come to an agreement on a new contract. Horwitz said that the primary disagreements focused on the scheduling of workers, who he said were frequently not given adequate time to eat, rest between shifts, or get bathroom breaks.
In addition to the issues over scheduling, the union is fighting to raise the cap of workers' pensions and secure affordable health care. The timing of the strike is unrelated to the election, but is instead tied to contracts that expired between the two sides at midnight last night.
A press representative from SEPTA spoke to ABC News by phone but declined to elaborate on a statement made to the press last night regarding the strikes. In it, SEPTA expressed hope that an agreement could be reached between the two sides by Nov. 8.
"We are hopeful that a tentative agreement will be reached before Election Day. If we foresee an agreement will not come to pass, SEPTA intends to seek to enjoin the strike for Nov. 8 to ensure that the strike does not prevent any voters from getting to the polls and exercising their right to vote," the statement said.
Megan Sweeney, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Republican Party, told ABC News that staff are "monitoring" the transportation strike, but haven't taken any specific actions yet to accommodate voters who might be hindered by it.
"We always have a really aggressive plan to make sure people get to the polls, and we always have contingency plans," Sweeney said, adding that she believed that enthusiasm for Donald Trump in the traditionally Democratic-leaning city appeared "very strong."
ABC News has reached out to the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, but did not immediately receive a response.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, however, has urged both sides to keep a dialogue open until an agreement could be reached.
“Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania residents rely on SEPTA to travel each day to and from work and school and the inability of TWU and SEPTA to reach an agreement is devastating for many of these individuals and their families,” Wolf said in a statement. “This will create extreme hardships for the city and for businesses.”
The state of Pennsylvania, where Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton is presently favored in most polling, is viewed as being crucial in the race for the White House.
In the latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll, enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton had slipped since the FBI said last week that it was reviewing new emails belonging to a longtime Clinton aide. Trump had seized a lead by a slim point for the first time since May, according to the poll produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates.
The poll is well within the margin of error, and may not necessarily reflect any changes in the electorate of Pennsylvania specifically, but it does help to demonstrate a degree of fluidity between Clinton and Trump as the race enters its final stretch.
TWU 234 endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in June, citing her "dedication to ensuring working people have a voice against corporate America and her plan to invest billions in the country’s infrastructure" as the reason behind the endorsement.
The timing behind the strike bears similarities to a similar one used by the union in 2009, which lasted for six day before being resolved.
from ABC News: Politics http://ift.tt/2eaA0go
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