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Philadelphia locomotive engineers who work for SEPTA successfully voted in favor of strike authorization earlier this week. These workers are represented by The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and union leaders stated that SEPTA locomotive engineers are the lowest-paid workers in this industry. The union is demanding greater wages, increases in hiring efforts to combat staff shortages, and improvements in other employee benefits. SEPTA currently employs 177 locomotive engineers, and the union claimed that 230 of these workers are needed to effectively maintain the SEPTA schedule. Locomotive engineers for other transportation systems and railroads in the Northeast make significantly greater full rates, and it takes a much shorter time period to achieve full rates compared to SEPTA. SEPTA has been experiencing low retention rates and many employees have left to go work for Amtrak and other companies, as SEPTA has not raised wages since 2019.