COVERITLIVE.COM

12:22

Philly.com - Welcome to the Hot Button chat on SEPTA,TWU 234 and the ongoing strike. Kitty and Ben will begin chatting at 12:30. You can enter your questions / comments at any time.

12:34

[Comment From Shuvra]
On speaking with a few people, it looks like the SEPTA employees have very little support from the city residents as they view their demands as unreasonable in these trying economic times. Given the situation, do you think the SEPTA employees are going to concede and end the strike soon?

12:35

Ben Waxman - Hello everyone!

12:35

Ben Waxman - Thanks for waiting. Kitty and I are trying to figure out some technicial issues.

12:37

Ben Waxman - Shuvra asks a very good question. I think it's absolutely true that TWU doesn't have a lot of support from the general public. That said, I don't think that means the strike will be over soon. The primary goal of any union is to help their membership. The TWU doesn't really care what the public thinks. In fact, the angrier the public gets, the more pressure there is on SEPTA to settle the strike.

12:38

[Comment From Alex]
Why haven't we just FIRED every one of these people and run an ad in every major newspaper saying Philadelphia has cheap housing and over 5000 jobs - qualified people start immediately! I'm sure that 5000 of the 35 million unemployed people in this country would be thrilled to drive our citizens around!

12:40

[Comment From Bob]
I want to know why the union thinks that because SEPTA has received money to help fix the systems infrastructure, that they deserve some of it?

12:41

Ben Waxman - Hey Alex. I have heard a lot of people asking why the strikers just don't get fired and it's understandable that people are frustrated with the union. It's a pain to get to work or anywhere else because of this strike. But, the workers are protected by state and federal labor law. They have a right to collective bargaining and unfortunately a strike is sometime s byproduct of the process.

Also, there are a lot of logistical challenges with firing people. Can you imagine if SEPTA had to train 5,000 people to operate buses and subways? The system would be down for a lot longer than the duration of this strike. In fact, it would cost the taxpayers millions of dollars to train everyone. It's just not possible.

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