5,500 members of Transport Workers Union Local 234 went on strike at 3AM Tuesday morning crippling SEPTA. Transit workers decided to strike as SEPTA is not offering enough in salary increases and pension benefits at the negotiating table.

This afternoon, nurses, doctors, students, and concerned community members picketed outside the ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of Temple’s new Medical Education and Research Building at 3500 N. Broad St. Temple VIPs who attended the ceremony had a clear view of the spirited rally from inside the shiny new building.

On Sunday October 25, members of the Transit Workers Union, TWU Local 234,voted to authorize a strike, due to stalled contract negotiations with SEPTA. TWU Local 234, which represents 4,700 workers in the city, has been operating without a contract since March of 2009. As a TWU flyer explains, SEPTA management has rejected any salary increases for workers for the next five years even though SEPTA ridership is up 30 percent and the transit authority has received increased funding from both the commonwealth and the Federal government. The authorization of a strike comes one week before the first World Series game in Philadelphia On October 31.

What if we drew a map that shows metro areas across the US with job gains and losses since the height of the economy in 2004? TIP Strategies did just that, creating a striking animation of the ballooning job losses marked by the crash of the financial markets in November 2008.