PENNSYLVANIA Striking turnpike workers seek fellow Teamster help

Workers were asking Teamster truckers to avoid the turnpike.
CARLISLE, Pa. (AP) -- Pennsylvania Turnpike managers began collecting tolls early Thanksgiving Day as the first strike in the turnpike's 64-year history entered its second day.
Turnpike officials had anticipated a walkout by about 2,000 toll collectors, maintenance workers and office employees, so they waived tolls all day Wednesday after the strike began at 4 a.m.
Just after midnight, several hundred managers began collecting $2 per car and $15 per commercial vehicle. Normally, the toll varies by distance, but the flat rate was charged to make things simpler and prevent backups at the toll plazas.
Paying flat fee
E-ZPass users pay the regular toll or the flat fee, whichever is cheaper. The fees are based on the average tolls, and could be raised if the system begins to show losses compared to last year's revenues, turnpike officials said.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission planned to bring in temporary workers to collect tolls along with the managers, who started work at midnight.
Independent truck driver Ken Holloway of Fort Thomas, Ky., said Wednesday that traffic in the first hours of the strike was lighter than he expected. Eating lunch at the Petro truck stop in Carlisle after taking the turnpike west from Philadelphia, Holloway said he liked saving $48 in tolls but predicted traffic jams at tollbooths once fees were reinstated.
"I think it'll be slow, honestly," Holloway said.
The main cause of the strike was a management proposal to allow layoffs as the three-year pact expired, union spokesman Ken Zawacki said.
"It's not the benefits, it's not the money -- it's the job security," he said.
Demands termed unrealistic
Turnpike chief executive Joe Brimmeier said Teamsters locals 77 and 250 were making unrealistic demands regarding work rules. The commission offered senior toll takers a 40-cent-an-hour raise each year to about $21 at the end of the three-year pact, he said.
"It's a shame that our traveling public is inconvenienced -- it just shows to me insensitivity about our customers," Brimmeier said.
Teamsters set up pickets along turnpike exits and asked trucker members to avoid taking the highway. In one incident, two tractor-trailers briefly blocked the Bedford interchange until tow trucks arrived, then started up and drove away.
The striking employees have been working without a contract for 14 months. Eighty percent of the strikers are in job classifications that earn, with overtime, nearly $50,000 a year, Brimmeier said.
Teamsters will be eligible for $188 in weekly union strike pay after one week, Zawacki said.
With no talks scheduled, neither side sounded optimistic Wednesday that the strike might be brief.
Nearly 400 managers were being put on 12-hour shifts to collect tolls and perform other tasks.