Bus Drivers Add New Demand: More Pay

Board Rejects Union Proposal
and Pickets Continue

by Michael Thomas

With buses still halted by a driver strike, METRO declined an offer from United Transportation Union Local 23 for a three-year contract that includes new demands for raises of up to 16%. The District expressed interest in a three-year contract, but won’t go back to the bargaining table until drivers are behind the wheel. Union officials want a larger gesture before returning drivers to work, and the situation appeared stalled as of Monday, October 3.

At 12:01 am on September 27, the union began a strike that has left an estimated 23,000 riders, including returning UCSC students and Watsonville residents, seeking other transportation. The strike began with no notice, and riders could be seen waiting at bus benches unaware that no buses were coming.

One Watsonville woman, waiting for a bus to Mission Street in Santa Cruz, exclaimed “Oh my gosh” when told of the strike and said she would be late to work. “What is it, a holiday or something?” said another waiting rider surprised by news of the strike.

Soquel High Student Stefanie Hammond said she missed two classes. “I was waiting for the bus for 45 minutes,” she said. When she found out there was a strike, she called a friend for a ride.

One local resident saw the strike as an opportunity to make some cash. Grocery store worker Enrique Cordiel was on his day off, riding his motorcycle when he heard there was a strike. He ran out and rented a 15 passenger van, adorned it with signs offering rides to local campuses and started driving.

Cordiel said the rental cost $100 and he had given about 45 people rides for $2 each. With the cost of gas, he wasn’t expecting to make much money. But he said it was a fun way to spend the day. “I took a lady from the Metro station [on Pacific Avenue] to Capitola, I couldn’t say no to her,” he said.

Bus drivers have been picketing at the Pacific Avenue depot in rotating groups of about a dozen. The union has about 163 members when the District is fully staffed.

District officials have advised the board that they may ask the Governor’s office to intervene and order drivers back to work for 60 days. The State would first need about 10 days to investigate and so far the Board has not exercised that option.

District Staff and Union Almost Reached Deal

Drivers initiated the walkout after the District’s board rejected a negotiated deal that would have held off a strike for eight months. During that period, one-time money would have been used to reduce drivers’ contributions to health care coverage, but the rates would have doubled when the tentative deal expired in the spring.

That tentative deal was the result of a late night bargaining session. At 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 8, just a few hours before bus drivers were set to go on strike, union negotiators and METRO staff tentatively settled on a plan to hold off a strike for nine months and begin contract negotiations again on Apr. 1.

The plan worked out late that night — while avoiding a UTU strike set to take place the next day — proposed to change the last, best and final offer implemented earlier in the month by the District’s board. However, the proposal didn’t have the sanction of the District’s board and METRO managers exceeded the parameters provided by the Board.

Then on Sept. 23, a majority of the District’s Board decided to leave in place the District’s “last, best and final offer” that had been imposed in September after months of negotiations failed to produce a contract. By taking no action, the Board left bus drivers searching for their next move.

By spending the entirety of the District’s budgeted money to avoid a strike now, some Directors believed that managers would have weakened the District’s ability to reach a new contract in April, causing hardship for drivers who, used to reduced out-of-pocket costs for insurance premiums in April, would suddenly be facing co-payments in excess of $400 per month if a new contract wasn’t reached.

However, at least one Board member thought they should have accepted the mediated settlement. “I think we made a big mistake,” said District Board member and County Supervisor Mark Stone. “We had a deal on the table and we didn’t take it.”

“It was a way for people to step back, take a breath and then come back together. Whether or not it was a good deal is certainly something worth discussing,” he added.

Union’s Latest Offer Added New Demands

At the conclusion of the first week of the strike, the District Board met in an emergency meeting to consider a new offer from UTU for a three year contract. District Director Les White said “the Board indicated that they too are interested in negotiating a multi-year contract.” However, Directors wanted bus drivers to come back to work before District staff returned to the bargaining table.

“We told them we are ready to start negotiations now,” White said. The District isn’t asking for a no-strike agreement, just for bus drivers to get back behind the wheel. “If negotiations broke down or there was not specific progress, they could go out to strike again.”

But according to Union spokesperson Bonnie Morr, the offer to negotiate wasn’t specific enough. “They didn’t say they were coming back to the bargaining table. They didn’t give us a date,” she said. “That’s not a commitment.”

“It felt like they were fishing,” she said.

According to White, the Union’s most recent offer includes new demands that widen the gap between negotiators. “What we heard [in previous talks] was ‘Just fix the medical costs,’” he said. “Now we have retirement costs, now they want wage increases that would make them the highest paid in the nation.”

Morr said the first year of the three-year plan they proposed was similar to the District’s last best and final offer. But they want the return of some benefits conceded in earlier negotiations, which included the option for a month of unpaid leave and the “baby bonus” for new parents. In exchange, drivers would allow the District to forego new mandates for lunch breaks that require sending a car out to relieve a driver mid-route.

In the second year, Morr said, the union now wants a pay boost and a reduction in drivers’ contributions to health care costs.

Then in the third year, they wanted that contribution cut so that drivers would not pay more than 5% of health care costs.

“By the third year, we were looking at achieving parity with the rest of the district,” Morr said, referring to a contract that Metro recently signed with non-driver employees represented by SEIU.

White countered that SEIU workers agreed to a fixed benefit equivalent to 95 percent of expected health care costs, not a cap on employee contribution, as UTU is now requesting.

District: Pay Boost Could Mean More Service Cuts

White was surprised to see UTU asking for more pay at this stage of the process. He said UTU asked for a 3 percent pay boost in the second year of the contract, with another 3 percent the next year. Drivers with ten years experience would get another 5 percent, and those with 15 years on the job would get an additional 10 percent.

That amounts to boosting top pay for drivers from $24.80 to $29.01 over three years, a 16 percent increase. “It would make them the highest in the nation,” he said.

METRO drivers currently have the fourth highest pay in the nation, behind Boston, San Jose and San Francisco. By 2008, San Jose’s top drivers will be paid $27.16 under a current contract and San Francisco’s top pay will reach $28.16. If Boston’s historic rate of increase continues, drivers there would be getting $28.72 in 2008, leaving Santa Cruz on top.

White estimates UTU’s recent proposal would cost the District $2.8 million over three years. “We would be talking a minimum of 20 percent to 25 percent cuts to service,” he said. And he warned that SEIU workers, whose contract runs for only a year, would likely demand similar concessions, forcing more service cuts.

Over the past 3 years, the District has reduced service by at least 20 percent, leaving 37 routes operating. Starting in July of 2004, most bus drivers got a pay boost of 9.25 percent.

Morr said that conceding the meal break would save the District between $200,000 and $250,000 every three months. The District has rented five cars used to bring out fresh drivers to relieve their coworkers for lunch. Morr said that money could go towards cutting drivers’ health care contribution.

White said the District had to “scramble” to put together the cars and schedule changes at the last minute after failing to reach a deal to forego the meal breaks with UTU.

White confirms the system is now inefficient and expensive and he promises that it will be streamlined soon after service resumes. He thinks he could cut the cost of the meal breaks by two-thirds in the coming year, making a concession on the meal breaks less valuable.

Parties Await Board Action

The District Board’s next scheduled meeting is October 14, but a special meeting could be called at any time. In the meantime, White said District officials don’t have authorization to start talks unless bus drivers return to work.

“We are still waiting for a counter proposal,” Morr said.

“We’ll give you a counter proposal if you come back to work. We’ll be working on a counter proposal here, but we can’t give it to them,” White said.

Board member and Capitola Council member Stephanie Harlan stands by the Board’s decision to leave the “last best and final offer” from September 1 in place.

Harlan supported making health care benefits more affordable for families and drivers with dependents.

“I don’t support raising fares and I don’t support cutting routes.”

“It’s just not possible for us to talk about pay raises at this time,” she added.