Transit drivers refuse contract
Bus drivers vote Sunday on their contract at the Teamsters office in Reno. If an agreement between the union and management can’t be reached they could go on strike.
Reno-area bus drivers were nearly unanimous Sunday in rejecting a contract offer from management, saying the proposal would diminish negotiated work rules in place for 12 years.
Though the 170 union drivers and 30 dispatchers have authorized leadership to call a strike and the contract expired at midnight Wednesday, service will continue while negotiations resume.
“I want them to go back to the table, plain and simple,” said Dusty Dowell, an RTC Ride driver. “The proposal’s ridiculous. Do away with our work rules? We need them to keep us there, not to get us fired.”
Of the 133 employees voting Sunday, 130 rejected the contract, two were in favor and one vote was disqualified.
“It was a surprise to me that two yeses came out,” said George R. Thrower, a bus driver and shop steward. “It’s amazing to me that anyone would think of accepting (that contract) and agree to work under these conditions.”
Mike Steele of Transit Management of Washoe, the private company that operates RTC Ride for the Regional Transportation Commission, wasn’t surprised.
“I’m not surprised by the vote,” Steele said. “Change is always concerning, but I’m willing to come back to the table.”
The offer made last week after three days of mediator-assisted negotiations was for a 9 percent wage increase over three years and increased the company’s hourly pension contributions by 9 percent over three years, Steele said.
Drivers are paid $13.62 to $18.05 per hour.
The company had no choice but to go back to the bargaining table, said Mark Tracy, secretary-treasurer and principal officer for Teamsters Union Local 533. “The options would be to force the union to strike, and that’s not good,” Tracy said. “It’s not good to push the union into a corner.”
No negotiation schedule was announced.
Drivers for RTC Ride, then called Citifare, last struck during the summer of 2002. That dispute, which crippled the bus lines for weeks, involved picket lines at the downtown transit center, employee lockouts and replacement drivers being brought in from out of state.
This article appeared originally in Reno Gazette-Journal.
