Gov. Ed Rendell, flanked by union and Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) officials, announced the agreement that would put buses, subways and trolleys back in operation after negotiators finished an all-night bargaining session, according to an Associated Press report by Ron Todt.

"We have an agreement, and it is a good agreement," Rendell said. "Like all agreements, both sides compromised."

The deal must still be ratified by both sides, but officials said workers should be back on the job for the afternoon rush hour.

The strike -- the first by unionized transit workers since 1998 -- began at 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 31. It involved some 300 suburban transit employees represented by the United Transportation Union Local 1594 and about 5,000 members of Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 234. It shut down nearly all bus, subway and trolley service in Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs and has inconvenienced about 400,000 daily riders, including 27,000 public school students who receive free or subsidized transit tokens. SEPTA's Regional Rail lines continue to operate but have been packed to capacity since the walkout began.

"We have an agreement in principle, but there's still some language to iron out," said UTU International Vice President Tony Iannone. "I'm confident we'll work it out within the next 48 hours."

Iannone said a tentative pact was reached at about 6 a.m. this morning (Nov. 7). "Although we mostly settled issues related to wages and benefits, we were unable to clarify some of the language this morning. But we felt it was important to get our people off the picket lines and back to work, and we didn't want to further inconvenience the public."

"It's great to be back," transit administration board chairman Pasquale "Pat" Deon told the Associated Press.

In an all-out push to break the contract deadlock that has crippled area public transit for a week, Gov. Rendell cloistered himself with SEPTA and union negotiators for several hours yesterday, extending talks into early today, according to a report by Larry King and Tina Moore published by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Rendell emerged at 6:30 p.m. yesterday, saying that the sides were getting closer to a settlement. He said negotiators had agreed on issues such as raises and the means of employee contributions to health-care coverage. Negotiations halted at 7 p.m. for a dinner break, then resumed at 8:30 p.m.

Rendell had injected himself into the fray as dealmaker and peacemaker, hoping to settle the impasse before it does lasting damage to SEPTA's relations with Harrisburg, where its ever-precarious financial health lies.

As SEPTA and its two striking unions became entrenched on the issue of health-care benefits, Rendell first surfaced on Thursday (Nov. 3) with a call for compromise.

Rendell told the Inquirer last night that the sides had agreed to base employee health-care contributions on a percentage of their pay.

Political pressure had mounted throughout the weeklong strike. Mayor Street met with union officials for five hours Friday (Nov. 4). On Saturday, officials met with U.S. Rep. Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.) and State Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.).

Check utu.org for more details as they become available.

(The preceding includes information reported by Ron Todt of the Associated Press, as well as reporting by Larry King and Tina Moore published by the Philadelphia Inquirer on Monday, Nov. 7, 2005.)

UTU Local 1594 President and Chairperson Ron Koran addresses a UTU/TWU rally attended by more than 500 SEPTA employees, retirees and family members in Upper Darby, Pa., where the two unions pleged "to work together, now, and in the future." TWU Local 234 President Jeff Brooks (at left, behind Koran) also addressed the rally and reaffirmed his commitment to hold the line with UTU. "We will not abandon our retirees and we will protect the rights of future retirees," Koran said.