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After nearly a week of uncertainty, the Philadelphia transit strike is finally over

The strike ended just in time for the election.

A train moves along the Market-Frankford Line in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016. CREDIT: AP Photo/Matt Rourke
A train moves along the Market-Frankford Line in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016. CREDIT: AP Photo/Matt Rourke

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA — Voters in heavily-Democratic Philadelphia will be able to enjoy a somewhat normal commute on Election Day after a week of snarled traffic and uncertainty.

Last Tuesday, Transport Workers Union Local 234, which represents about 5,000 people who operate the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s buses, subways, and trolleys that serve Philadelphia, went on strike. The city’s transportation system has been paralyzed, snarled by traffic and long commutes, which has worried people operating several get-out-the-vote operations in the city and surrounding suburbs.

But in the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning, the union’s leaders and the management of SEPTA reached a tentative five-year agreement, ending the strike one day before Election Day.

“During GOTV, NextGen has been working with voters, including many first time voters, to make a ‘plan to vote,’” Aleigha Cavalier, NextGen PA’s communications director, told ThinkProgress. NextGen Climate PA is a get-out-the-vote group that has been active in the state for a few months talking to voters about climate change. “Close to 4 million PA residents use SEPTA, including many young people, and we’re thrilled to learn that a deal has been made. Philadelphians again have access to public transportation and can utilize SEPTA to make a plan to vote that works for them.”

Philadelphia has over 1,600 voting divisions, and for most people, their polling place is no more than a few blocks from their home. Yet many people depend on the public transit system to commute or get their kids to school. Without it, planning around chaos and uncertainty on Election Day would have meant that getting to a polling place between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. could be impossible.

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“I feel like it gives me more time back tomorrow, since I know I can take the subway to and from work,” said Liz Welsh, 33, a business analyst who has lived in the city for seven years. “So I’m no longer worried about when I’ll get to vote.”

Solid turnout in the eastern part of the state, dominated by the Philadelphian population center served by SEPTA, is the only way Democratic candidates can win statewide elections. The transit strike would have disproportionately affected black and poor voters, and shift workers who do not have flexibility in their workdays, according to Dan Hopkins, an associate professor of government at the University of Pennsylvania, writing in FiveThirtyEight Sunday night.

SEPTA’s management sought to end the strike for good over the weekend, which found support from Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) on Sunday evening. The city filed for a more limited injunction to force workers back to work for Election Day only. All of these negotiations, and a hearing that was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Monday in Common Pleas Court, are now moot with the tentative agreement.

Union officials reportedly suggested that SEPTA’s management “would invite the added chaos a transit strike would provide Election Day.” SEPTA board chairman Pasquale Deon Sr. rejected that idea last month, saying “we have no desire to have a labor strike [during] the election.”

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According to FEC data, Deon has given tens of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and committees, including to many of Pennsylvania’s Republican congressional delegation. He told NPR earlier this year that many of the union members in Levittown, a Philadelphia suburb, “could go for Donald Trump.”

Board member Kevin L. Johnson has given Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) $3,500 since 2010, and has given $1,000 to the conservative GOP Keystone Alliance PAC this cycle. William McSwain is on SEPTA’s board for Chester County, and has given $3,000 to boost Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), $1,500 to Jeb Bush, and $2,250 to Republican congressional candidate Ryan Costello, among others.