SEPTA Union Boss: It’s the Job I Wanted Since I Was a Kid

Over the last few months, workers for the
Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) have been
threatening a strike via the Transit Workers Union (TWU) Local 234.
The average TWU
member makes $64,847 a year with overtime and they get annual pay
raises of 3 percent.

The union is currently demanding lower contributions to pensions
and health insurance, because apparently they have not been paying
attention to the news around the country.
 One of the TWU president’s specific gripe is that managers
receive three times as much money for their pension contributions
as workers. Lowering how much managers get should fix that
disparity.

The union voted yesterday to allow its president, Willie Brown,
to call a strike at any time. Brown’s wanted that job since he was
a child, as he told Philly.com during
an interview:

Q: What did you want to be when you grew up?

A: A union president. When I was a little boy, a guy took me to
a union function; it was a Christmas party. From that point
forward, I wanted to be in a union.

Q: So, even before you became a trolley driver for SEPTA, you
wanted to be TWU Local 234’s leader?

A: Absolutely. I didn’t come here to operate a trolley. That was
my vehicle to get to the presidency. I wanted to be president from
day one.

He also said the strike, which would create a burden for
commuting workers throughout the Philadelphia-area and for all
classes, is as much for them as it is for the union, because
they “face the same issues that we have but have no one to fight
for them.” He didn’t mention any issues and Philly.com didn’t press
it.

It seems hard to imagine a better advertisement for “right to
work” (broadly, the right to refuse to join a union) than the idea
that the well-paid union bosses representing you were never
interested in the work you do insomuch as they were interested in
“leading” you and enriching themselves in the process.