Sudden strike catches many residents off guard

BY AMANDA SCHOENBERG

Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District bus operators represented by United Transportation Union Local 23 walked off the job at midnight Monday, escalating a seven-month contract negotiation and leaving thousands of commuters, students and others stranded.
Picket lines formed at Metro stations in Watsonville and Santa Cruz as well as the River Street operating facility and Metro administrative offices. UTU 23 bus operators have made plans to walk the picket lines until a contract is reached.
Outside the Watsonville Metro Station, which was nearly deserted at 11 a.m. Tuesday, several bus drivers waved union signs amid honks from passing cars.
A handful of Metro riders, only a fraction of the usually bustling crowd, sat around the station either waiting for rides or deciding what to do.
“I won’t be able to go to work tomorrow because of this,” said Indeliza Magaña, who waited with her 8-month-old son, Antonio Magaña, at the station for friends to pick her up.
On most days, Magaña rides the bus home to Santa Cruz from her job at Wildwood Natural Foods on Rodriguez Street.
“I always go on the bus,” she said. “I didn’t know it wasn’t going to stop today.”
Metro General Manager Les White was frustrated by the number of people like Magaña who were left without transportation Tuesday.
“I’m disappointed there was no notification,” White said. “There was no opportunity to prepare our passengers with other alternatives.”
Still, community groups, organizations and individuals stepped forward to help stranded riders.
Several Metro drivers said they spent the morning picking up passengers in their own vehicles. Coco Conklin said she packed 15 people into her SUV on several trips from her home in Live Oak, starting at 7 a.m.
“They’re my extended family,” she said of her passengers.
Sal Calderon, who joined Conklin in Watsonville wearing a shirt that read, “Bus Drivers Make the Wheels Go Round Local 23 UTU,” said he, too, picked up passengers in his own car.
“It’s a shame to have to see these folks that have no way to get around,” he said.
Calderon accused the Metro board of “playing games” for its rejection of an agreement Friday that would have settled differences between the board and the union with a no-strike clause until next June.
“If you make a decision, you can’t go back and take it away,” agreed Carolyn Bowers, a Watsonville resident and bus driver for two years.
“(Last week) I told my passengers, ‘Thank God, you don’t have to worry,’” she said. “Then this happened. It was a shocker.”
To pay for lower health insurance premiums for workers, the Metro board called for $157,000 in cuts, including eliminating safety bonuses, the “drop a day” program, bilingual pay beyond platform time, a baby bonus and the general leave program.
Conklin said she joined the strike over benefits.
“The reason I’m striking is the threat to our benefit packages that we’ve worked very hard to accrue,” she said.
The board expected to head back to negotiations but by Tuesday afternoon had not yet heard from the union, Metro board member Marcela Tavantzis said.
“I am open to meeting anytime, anyplace,” she said. “I have not received any requests.”
Metro staff, UTU and negotiators reached a tentative agreement that prevented the last move to strike. But during closed-session meetings, the board chose to not accept the proposal, Tavantzis said.
“We think in the long term it damages the staff more than continuing the discussion,” she said.
The agreement would have temporarily lowered health premiums for the next nine months, but would have left both sides open to another round of negotiations in June.
“We would have been back exactly where we are today,” Tavantzis said. “The board felt strongly that we need to fix this now.”
Monterey-Salinas Transit, which runs out of the Watsonville Metro Center, set up a temporary stop at the corner of Union and East Beach streets to help passengers traveling to and from Monterey County arrive at their destinations.
At the office of Commute Solutions, a nonprofit organization that facilitates ridesharing and alternative transportation, phones were “ringing off the hook” and e-mail inquires for rideshares were “way up,” said Cory Caletti, a program manager and senior transportation planner.
“Today, it’s been about four to five times the usual amount of business,” Caletti said. “Everybody is just really hit hard. A lot of people are at a loss and are looking for any alternative.”
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For information on Metro bus service, visit the Metro Web site at www.scmtd.com. For information on alternatives, visit www.iridethebus.org or www.commutesolutions.org.