Cap Met Axes Labor Relations Manager Position
Transit authority's union concerned about unexpected move's impact on upcoming negotiations
By Wells Dunbar, Fri., July 27, 2007
The decision was announced on July 19, effective immediately. "As Capital Metro and StarTran restructure in anticipation of becoming a multi-modal transportation provider, emphasis will be placed on several aspects of our operations," reads an e-mail from Cap Metro media contact Adam Shaivitz, citing "a renewed focus on training, seamless operations by all contract employees, and improved productivity and customer service. As part of this focus, the position held by Kent McCulloch is being realigned. ... A new job description is being developed for a new position that will incorporate the skills required as we evolve as a transportation provider."
While the protracted battle between StarTran and Amalgamated Transit Union 1091 -- culminating in the union's one-day strike, and a zero-hour intervention from the mayor -- is fresh in everyone's memory, the agreement they reached in January 2006 has already expired, going belly-up June 30. Looking at the timing, outspoken ATU 1091 President Jay Wyatt is wary of Cap Metro's decision to do away with McCulloch's position. "The more they eliminate positions on the StarTran board of directors, the more [Capital Metro] can come back and say 'no one's really running StarTran,' forcing us into meet-and-confer negotiations -- since we're not willing to do that now." The histories of Capital Metro, its union, and StarTran are inexorably linked. ATU 1091 organized prior to Cap Metro's creation in the Eighties, and the union's bargaining rights are preserved under federal law, yet state law prohibits public entities like Cap Metro from union-bargaining. To reconcile the conflict, Cap Metro created StarTran to execute its union contracts, but the extra layer of obfuscation it added was decried as needlessly confusing. Also, the fiction that Cap Metro had no sway over StarTran's decisions -- despite staffing the company and sharing several employees -- further complicated negotiations.
When City Council Member Lee Leffingwell joined the Cap Metro board of directors in 2006, he hoped to untangle the two, putting all workers under the direct employ of Capital Metro; earlier this year, he got the board to pass a resolution stating their desire to do so, in addition to stopping the outsourcing of upcoming commuter rail jobs. But leaving private employer StarTran for public employer Cap Metro means ATU 1091 would have to give up its collective bargaining rights -- reinforced by the right to strike -- in exchange for meet-and-confer contract talks, a move Wyatt says is a nonstarter. "Everyone makes a big deal about the right to strike," Wyatt says. "It's not a big deal to me; it's not something I'm in love with. I just gotta have something in place to protect our people. ... Meet and confer takes away all our rights."
The next round of contract talks is scheduled for early August. Wyatt will have assistance from the national transit union, while StarTran/Cap Metro has acquired the assistance of attorney Tom Hock, co-founder of Loveland, Ohio-based Professional Transit Management. According to PTM's website, the agency was created "to offer flexible, cost effective solutions to meeting the executive management and labor relations needs of the American transit industry"; in May, PTM, operating as Springs Transit, settled a racial discrimination lawsuit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $450,000.
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