Rules aimed at shielding strikers

Thursday, May 23, 2002 | 11:12 a.m.

Officials for the union representing striking bus drivers said Wednesday that new ground rules should help prevent incidents where pickets have been hit by buses.

Pickets have dogged replacement workers and those ignoring the strike at several locations, including two yards used to park and repair buses. About 700 members of Amalgamated Transit Local 1637 walked off the job early Monday morning.

The members work for ATC, a company contracted to operate the Citizens Area Transit system by the Regional Transportation Commission. The bus system ordinarily serves about 150,000 people daily throughout Clark County.

Since the strike, more than a dozen routes are simply not running. Other bus routes are running minutes or hours late.

On Monday and Tuesday, union members said about a dozen pickets were hit by buses. Two people were hurt, neither seriously, and one picket was ticketed for blocking traffic.

ATU local President Frank Opdyke said the new rules were worked out Wednesday with the participation of Metro Police and ATC supervisors. They will govern the pickets at the exits from a bus park-and-repair site in Las Vegas and a busy turnaround near the south end of the Strip.

"We set up an agreement," said Opdyke. "We would get two minutes to walk across the bus exit. After the two minutes, we would clear the bus exits like the Red Sea."

"It's about safety," he said.

Opdyke said he knew of no one getting bumped with a bus Wednesday.

Metro Police spokesman Tirso Dominguez said his department's role was simply to mediate a meeting between ATC and the union.

"The agreement they came upon was between the union and the management," he said.

ATC spokeswoman Val Michael confirmed the agreement at the bus yard at Tompkins Avenue and Industrial Road, but said she has not seen the union picketers honoring the arrangement.

"From what I've observed at other sites, they're not observing it anywhere," Michael said.

Observers from the RTC and local police departments said they will continue to monitor the situation at picketing locations and on bus routes.

RTC spokeswoman Ingrid Reisman said her agency is in close contact with law enforcement.

"There's always a concern for the safety of passengers, whether there's a strike or not," Reisman said.

She said no incidents over the last three days appeared to affect passengers on the buses and passengers can ride the buses with confidence, although they might have to wait a while at the bus stop.

"We haven't seen anything that would tell us we need to look again at passenger safety, and I don't really foresee that changing," she said. "The bus drivers carry these passengers, know these passengers.

"I don't think that because they are striking they would disregard passenger safety," Reisman said.

Las Vegas Valley police said they also will continue to monitor developments at the picketing sites to protect property and the rights of both strikers and the ATC.

Opdyke gave good marks to Metro Police at the bus yard at Tompkins Avenue and Industrial Road and a turnaround for buses on Gilespie Street and Sunset Road, but said the North Las Vegas Police presence was excessive at the Simmons Street and Cheyenne Avenue yard.

"I was appalled by the show of police force up there," Opdyke said. "We don't have that show of force at Gilespie. ... It was like it was an insurrection."

He said there were "no arrests, no harassment, no foul play" to ATC replacement drivers or to the buses.

While one picket received a ticket for blocking traffic, Opdyke said the union would contest the ticket in court.

North Las Vegas Police Lt. Art Redcay said his department's presence is not designed to aid one side of the strike over the other.