Tuesday, August 19, 2008

A VTA union warns of possible strike

The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, which represents the front line employees and mechanics, is warning of a possible strike on September 8. VTA and ATU reached impasse on July 9 and state mediation failed last week. While VTA and ATU will not publicly discuss details of the negotiation, many ATU members were present at the last VTA Board meeting and addressed the board after the end of the closed session. According to the union, wage, health care and pensions are the primary issues.

For now, expect VTA to miss some runs. ATU has asked its members not to work overtime.
On August 27, union members will vote on the VTA's final offer, which was rejected by the union leadership. A no vote by the union members may lead to a strike.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

For your file on VTA Transportation.

Slide show by Tom Rubin, probably the top transportation expert in the US.

VTA- the-nations-worst-managed-transit-agency

http://americandreamcoalition.org/Rubin11-10-07.pdf

Thomas said...

If that happens, our streets could become unbelievably crowded. We could ride bikes during the strike, as had happened during the Santa Cruz Metro and New York Transit strikes.

accountablevta said...

In a lot of ways a strike could be very similar to the LA transit strike back in 2003. San Jose is very similar to LA in terms of auto dependency and land use, except that the transit mode share is less than that of LA.