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Yesterday, Transport Workers Union (TWU) members voted in favor of launching a strike at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) if a new agreement isn’t reached by week’s end.

TWU Local 234 represents about 5,500 subway and trolley operators, bus drivers and mechanics. A five-year contract covering 4,700 operators and mechanics in SEPTA’s City Transit Division — which operates the Broad Street Subway, Market-Frankford Line and trolleys — expired on March 15.

SEPTA has proposed no wage increase for the first two years of a four-year contract and a 2 percent increase in each of the other two years, according to the union, which is seeking a 4 percent pay hike each year.

SEPTA plans to continue negotiations and expects the parties to reach an agreement by Saturday, agency officials said in a prepared statement.

Meanwhile, CN and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference plan to resume bargaining talks with federal mediators during the week of Nov. 16. The parties are trying to negotiate a new collective agreement for 1,700 Canadian locomotive engineers without a labor disruption. The engineer’s previous agreement expired on Dec. 31, 2008.