Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091, representing Capital Metro‘s drivers and maintenance workers, announced this morning that its members will go on strike beginning Wednesday, Nov. 5, after failing to come to a contract agreement with StarTran, the contractor that actually employs them.
Within hours of the strike announcement, Capital Metro responded with a plan for reduced bus service if the strike actually happens, and City Council Member Mike Martinez – backed by several other elected officials – volunteered a compromise stopgap proposal that he hoped would avert the strike and buy time for a more lasting deal.
The union said it would have preferred to begin striking on Monday, but it did not want to interfere with voters getting to the polls on Nov. 4.
Capital Metro President Fred Gilliam said that 10 of the busiest routes would be staffed by nonunion employees and union employees who wanted to continue working. He also noted that certain routes, such as the UT shuttle buses, are operated by contractors other than StarTran and would not be affected.
StarTran General Manager Terry Garcia Crews told reporters that she had made an offer to the union to return to the negotiation table a week from today.
“It’s sad to me that there has to be this conflict,” Crews said. It’s bad for us, our employees, and the community.”
Martinez’s proposal would:
• be a retroactive stopgap covering July 2007-July 2009
• include a retroactive pay increase of 3% for 2007-08 and 2.5% for 2008-09
• accept StarTran’s proposed healthcare package
• eliminate the proposed tiered wage system
• conduct an independent audit of CapMetro (which the union had requested) by a mutually agreed upon auditor, to be completed by July 2009.
With the increases in ridership Capital Metro has made in recent, the upcoming implementation of a commuter rail line, and a Lege session that might create regional opportunities for mass transit, “We can’t afford a strike now,” Martinez said. “I’m asking ATU to go to work Wednesday, but I’m not going to send them back to the negotiating table blind.”
Martinez said his proposal is “simplistic” and not intended to be a final solution, but “it ends the stalemate” and buys more time to hammer out something more permanent.
ATU President Jay Wyatt attended Martinez’s press conference and said the proposal was “something I can respectfully look at and take back to my committee. I don’t think Capital Metro will agree to it. They don’t like people telling them what to do.”
Capital Metro spokesman Adam Shaivitz said that Crews is aware of the Martinez proposal, but “right now her priority is returning to the table.”
“StarTran is still awaiting a response from Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091 about returning to the negotiating table on November 7,” Crews said in a statement. “StarTran suggested this date on Tuesday of this week and hopes the Union will return to the table and reconsider its decision to strike.”
StarTran exists as the actual employer of Cap Metro workers because state law forbids Cap Metro from bargaining with a union, but federal law protects collective bargaining.
This article appears in John McCain.