BUS DRIVERS STRIKE AGAINST BAD FAITH BARGAINING

by Paul Johnston

Today, from Watsonville to Scotts Valley to UCSC, Santa Cruz County is reeling from the bus drivers' strike.

Not just twenty thousand riders-students and workers and elderly and others-but employers, teachers, customers and thousands upon thousands of drivers struggling to cope with congestion caused by the paralysis of public transit.

How did we come to this?

Three weeks ago, Santa Cruz County teetered on the brink of a transit strike. Then in the final hours, the bus drivers union and Metro Transit district managers came to an agreement: no strike, no lockout and no takeaways at least until the middle of next year.

It wasn't a long-term solution, but it was a solution. It kept the buses rolling while giving both sides time to work on the shared problem of spiraling healthcare costs.

But late last week-for the first time in the history of the district-the Metro Transit board rejected that agreement, negotiated by its own management team.

Now, all involved agree this dispute has to do with a problem that plagues our whole community: who will pay for growing healthcare costs. Also, with management's proposed "take-aways" of work rules that respond to the family needs of drivers whose 24/7 work schedule changes by the day, the week and the season.

But now, by vetoing an agreement made with its own full knowledge by its own management team, the Metro Transit board has put another problem on the table. Now that board has called its own good faith into question.

Good faith, first of all, with the bus drivers whom this board seeks to lead in public service.

Good faith, even more important, with the general public who depend on that leadership to keep the buses rolling.

So how, now, can we settle this strike? How can the drivers bargain with a management team whose credibility has been compromised?

Behind the bad faith is a management mentality that assumes compromise is unnecessary because the employer has all the power and the workers have none. For this management mentality, labor relations means deciding what you want to do, going through the motions, and then in the end imposing your will on the workers and their union.

Metro Transit is not the only agency infected by this virus. Our first task at Metro Transit-and elsewhere as well-is to prove this assumption wrong.

Paul Johnston is Secretary-Treasurer of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council