LV union in dispute over merger of bus companies

Tuesday, May 2, 2000 | 11:04 a.m.

Officers of a union representing 230 drivers, mechanics and service line employees of a Las Vegas bus operation say the new owners are trying to break the union and aren't negotiating in good faith on a new contract.

Officials with United Transportation Union Local 105 say corporate executives with Coach USA Inc., Houston, which acquired and merged K-T Contract Services Inc., and Gray Line Tours of Southern Nevada, are trying to squeeze out union representation by intimidating union leaders and rewarding union members who defect.

Gordon Van Auken, manager of human resources for the western region of Coach USA, denied the allegations but said he could not discuss details of union negotiations because he is awaiting the results of a contract ratification vote.

"My official comment is that the company's been bargaining in good faith with the union for over a year," Van Auken said. "In some cases, we've even had a federal mediator present at our request."

Van Auken said negotiations have concluded with the union and he said the biggest problem is that local union representatives are not in agreement with their international office of the UTU. He said he could not discuss any details.

But union officials say the contract they're being asked to ratify is no different from a proposal the rank and file already has rejected.

"We asked for changes, but they said no to everything," said Ambrose Murray, local president of the UTU and a Coach USA bus driver in the Las Vegas area. "We're about at an impasse."

And as for a disagreement with the union's international leadership, Murray said that's no business of the company. Murray acknowledged that local union representatives want the international negotiator, Percy Palmer, to be more assertive in his dealings with the company.

Palmer, based in Los Angeles, was designated to lead contract negotiations because its the union's first contract with Coach USA. Local union members dispute that, saying they've already had contracts with the company's predecessors.

Coach USA, owned by Stagecoach Holdings PLC, a Scottish company that operates the largest charter bus company in the United States, has operations in 120 U.S. cities.

The company's strategy has been to buy and consolidate bus companies in top markets. Today, the company has 9,500 buses, vans, shuttles and taxis, transporting passengers more than 250 million miles in 1998. The company, a key competitor in most of the nation's tourism centers in charters, tours and airport shuttles, had annual revenues in 1998 of $803.6 million.

K-T Contract Services, which had contracts with several companies to transport Las Vegas-based employees to and from the Nevada Test Site, had been represented by the Teamsters union prior to the Coach USA acquisition.

Gray Line Tours, a charter company that offered scenic tours to visitors, had been represented by the UTU.

When Coach USA acquired both companies and merged them in 1997, it authorized a "winner-take-all" election offering employees a choice of being represented by either union. Employees overwhelmingly approved the UTU, which offered its Gray Line workers a more lucrative contract than what the Teamsters had with K-T.

Since both union contracts with Gray Line and K-T ran through December 1999 and had one-year extension rollovers, the UTU agreed to begin contract negotiations and imposed a Dec. 31, 2000, deadline.

But now, Murray said Coach USA management is stalling talks and withholding information the union says is critical to drafting a new contract.

Murray said the company won't allow UTU representatives to see the old K-T contract with Bechtel Nevada, one of the Nevada Test Site contractors.

The union and management met March 21, but Murray said the company established ground rules for future talks. Murray said the company has said all proposals and requests must be submitted in advance in writing. So far, most requests have been summarily rejected.

"On the Test Site transportation contract that used to be a K-T Teamsters contract, we just wanted a starting point so that we could develop a new proposal," Murray said.

Murray said there are several differences between his union's contract with Gray Line and the Teamsters' contract with K-T. Among the differences are over how overtime pay is calculated and the amount of money the company contributes to an employee's health insurance premium. Murray said under the Teamsters' contract, employees paid more than three times the amount paid by employees under the Gray Line-UTU contract.

Murray, meanwhile, said he and UTU Chairman James McNealy have been cited for disciplinary infractions and have been called into hearings designed to intimidate the union leadership. He said union officials also have been told by workers they have been offered rewards from the company if they dissociate with the union.

Murray said he was called into a hearing after talking to one of Coach USA's contractors about the selection of drivers for charter trips. The selection process differed between the two different union contracts the drivers were operating under and he said he wanted to clarify the situation with the contractor. The company looked at it as an effort to interfere with company business.

Murray said the Las Vegas negotiations aren't the first ones in which Coach USA has butted heads with unions.

A transportation company based in Phoenix, also acquired by Coach USA, fought with a management "union buster," Murray said. The Amalgamated Transit Union battled a company-backed union decertification drive at Arrow Stage Lines last year, he said.