RTC likely to levy only fraction of potential fine

Monday, July 8, 2002 | 11:01 a.m.

The Regional Transportation Commission will likely fine the bus system's operating company only a fraction of what it could for lost service during a five-week strike, the commission chairman said.

Under a proposal that would waive hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars worth of fines, the RTC, which oversees bus service in Clark County, would fine bus operator ATC $450,000.

RTC Chairman Bruce Woodbury said the fine would allow the company to pay bigger and better bonuses to striking bus drivers if they returned to work.

The new policy, if adopted by the full board, reverses earlier positions in which RTC officials said the company would be held to contract provisions requiring fines for the company for late or missing buses, a common occurrence during the strike.

Some drivers charged Friday that ATC company officials knew that they would not be charged the full fines for missed service, and that assurance allowed the company to keep the strike going longer than it otherwise would have.

Both union drivers and the operating company faced financial losses during the bitter strike, which ended July 1. The drivers faced lost wages, and the company faced fines for late or missed buses.

ATC representatives could not be reached for comment after numerous phone messages.

RTC spokeswoman Ingrid Reisman said the total potential fines have not been compiled but probably would be. Informal estimates of hundreds of late or missing buses every day would put the total in the millions.

She said applying the fines could end the company's financial viability and presence in Las Vegas, a prospect that would dismantle the bus system.

"If they had to default on the contract, where would the drivers be? Where would the riders be?" Reisman asked.

Under the terms of ATC's contract with the transit agency, the RTC can charge the company "liquidated damages" -- $300 for every bus running at least 10 minutes late and $500 for every bus more than 20 minutes late or entirely missing a run.

"During the latter stages of the strike, we -- (RTC General Manager) Jacob Snow and I -- told ATC if they get the strike settled that we would recommend to the commission that we limit the liquidated damages to $450,000 or so," Woodbury said. "We would waive the additional liquidated damages so they could use that money to pay the workers and get the strike settled."

RTC officials including Woodbury and Snow said in the weeks before the strike ended that they were meeting with both the company and union representatives in an effort to encourage a settlement.

The $450,000 charged to the company will be used to pay for bus passes to compensate regular riders. Beginning today riders can turn in monthly bus passes validated during the strike and in return receive a fresh 30-day pass.

Although at the beginning of the strike RTC officials including Woodbury said the contract's provisions would be upheld, within days RTC staff said that a decision on the fines had to wait until the labor action's conclusion. Speaking on the issue might be seen as pressuring the company, an action forbidden under federal labor rules, RTC officials said.

But in the days following the May 20 walkout, union officials including Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1637 President Frank Opdyke said the agency's failure to fine the company was evidence that the RTC favored the company.

Although union drivers accepted a contract offer by a 2-1 margin June 27, ending the strike, many of the drivers said they are still unhappy with the terms of the contract.

The contract provides a $3.25 raise over the next five years and requires the drivers to pay a flat 15 percent of health insurance costs.

Opdyke said the union now has no official stance on whether the operating company should be fined.

"The RTC, they are going to do what they feel they should do, and no more," he said. "The RTC board is the body to do that."

Woodbury said the full RTC board will have to approve waiving the fines, probably next month.

Three drivers said last week that the company should have to pay the fines for missed or late service. They said the new contract bars them from speaking openly to the media.

"We feel that the fines should be levied on the company," one said. "The money that the company is allowed to keep -- it's like a win for the company.

"I believe the RTC thinks they are giving us something, when in reality they are not," the driver said. "The company is keeping it. The company did know that something was going to happen with the fines."

Another driver unsatisfied with the new contract said the company and the public agency probably had an agreement that no fines would be levied. The driver said he had no direct evidence of that accusation.

Woodbury said the accusation is incorrect and unfair. The agency only used the waiver as an incentive to forge a settlement that would be beneficial to both sides, he said, as well as to riders.

"In a situation like this, there are always going to be conspiracy theories," Woodbury said. "That's to be expected."

But the offer is justified by the result, he said.

"I think it speeded up the settlement."