Bus drivers likely to reject deal

Wednesday, May 29, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

Hundreds of bus drivers are voting today on a contract that could bring them back to the roads of the Las Vegas Valley -- but union drivers concerned about wages and health insurance contributions could spike the proposal.

Amalgamated Transit Local 1637 President Frank Opdyke said voting was heavy since the union polls opened at 6 a.m. -- and the trend was against the proposed agreement.

"They're not supporting it," Opdyke said -- but cautioned that the final decision will not be in until the close of the union polls tonight.

The latest offer from ATC, the company that operates the bus system, would run until September 2005 and would give a 2 percent raise every six months with a 2.5 percent raise the last month of the contract. Employees would receive extra pay and time for working Christmas and New Year's Eve beginning in 2003.

Employees' contributions to the health insurance plan would be capped at $50 per family.

"The health issue seems to be the biggest one right now," Opdyke said.

The union had asked for a 7 percent raise over the next two years, no contributions to health insurance and extra pay for working holidays.

Union members voted to reject an earlier contract proposal and in a separate vote authorized a strike. Union negotiators rejected another contract offer from the bus company without a vote.

The issue of contributions to the health insurance plan was a major stumbling block in the earlier rejected offers. According to the company, the previous offer would have increased wages from 3 percent to 10 percent annually and increased employees health-plan contributions to $25 per family.Opdyke said the company used the second rejection to criticize the union, so the union is bringing this offer to the full membership. But the members are rejecting the offer, he said.

"The trend that I see here is that people look at the contract and ask: 'Why do we have to vote on this?' " Opdyke said. "But the members make up their own minds. The members make the ultimate decision."

Polling will close at 6 tonight with a result expected shortly after. The union had originally scheduled voting from 6 a.m. to noon, but Opdyke said the polls were extended to give members more time to review the proposed contract.

About 700 union bus drivers for the Citizens Area Transit system walked out nine days ago after months of talks. The strike idled some routes and delayed dozens more in the 51-route system that ordinarily carries 150,000 people a day.

The Regional Transportation Commission, the government agency with overall responsibility for running the system, contracts with ATC, an international corporation, to provide the bus service. The company independently negotiates wages, benefits and contracts with employees.

Several drivers said Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning that they will vote against the tentative deal.

"It's worse than before," one ATU driver said from the union offices on Karen Avenue.

Another driver, now making $12 an hour, said he would end up making about $14 an hour in three years -- and would end up losing pay because of the required medical contribution.

Although the union and drivers admit the lost wages hurt, union members on Wednesday vowed to stay on strike "as long as it takes."

The mood was much darker than it had been 24 hours earlier.

ATU union leaders had been upbeat about the tentative agreement, scheduling it for a vote a day after a 12-hour negotiating session ended at about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday. By Tuesday afternoon, pickets had left the four locations that had been sites of sometimes acrimonious conflicts between company replacement workers and striking union members.

ATC spokeswoman Valerie Michael said the company thought it had a contract acceptable to the union.

"When they left the table last night it was my understanding that the union negotiating team was happy with the proposal," Michael said.

But "it is not a done deal," she added.

Opdyke credited Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman with invigorating a negotiating process that had completely broken down two weeks ago.

Goodman said Tuesday that he made personal appeals last week to Opdyke and David Boggs, the company's regional vice president.

Goodman urged them to resolve the matter and said it was imperative that they avert a strike.

When told the union was giving him credit for bringing the two sides together, Goodman said, "I don't know if I had any bearing whatsoever."

Bus system riders had greeted the tentative agreement with relief. Some riders found their regular 30-minute commutes have stretched into hours.

Humberto Hinojos, an assistant arcade manager at The Orleans, waited in the heat for his bus at the bus turnaround near the south end of the Strip. His commute has taken a couple of hours on occasion since the strike started.

"The regular drivers are good about the schedules," he said. "The replacements don't seem familiar with the routes."

Hinojos said he has been on buses where the replacement drivers seem to get lost. Other riders expressed similar frustrations.

"I was late to work for a week-and-a-half straight, every day," agreed Shawn Bowser, a server at Red Lobster. His managers have not docked his pay, but Bowser said he wants the regular drivers back.

"It'll be a lot better," he said. "Half the people in this town depend on the bus."

But some riders said the system is coming back, even without the union bus drivers.

Christina Jimenez, a security guard and regular passenger, said she must budget three hours to get to work and has to ask friends for rides home. But the situation has been improving, in part because more drivers are crossing the picket lines to work, she said.

"They're coming back because they can't afford it, not to work," she said.

"The first couple of days were really bad," said Ron Young, a consultant commuting from Henderson to the Strip. "I think they were caught off guard by the strike. ... It was more efficient after the first couple of days."