Bus drivers vow to stay on strike

Friday, May 31, 2002 | 11:02 a.m.

Union bus drivers are charging the company that runs Citizens Area Transit with "union busting" for threatening to hire permanent replacements to keep the system moving.

ATC, which has a contract with the Regional Transportation Commission to operate the system, warned Thursday that any drivers not back to work before 4 a.m. today would lose health insurance and would not receive wage hikes until September -- if they had jobs to come back to.

Amalgamated Transit Local 1637 President Frank Opdyke said the company's vow to hire permanent replacements and to cut off health benefits is "a scare tactic to bust the union."

"We're not going to bust," Opdyke said.

Less than 100 of about 700 drivers crossed the picket line this morning, he said. A bus system website was reporting that 11 routes, including the Strip express, had no service. ATC officials did not return phone calls this morning.

The company is already hiring workers to bolster crews of supervisors, trainers and drivers from out of state. ATC spokeswoman Valerie Michael said those new drivers will not be fired to make way for union drivers who want to return to their jobs.

Dennis Kist, union attorney, said the company can hire permanent replacements but the striking workers' fate depends on the outcome of the labor action.

"If the union wins, they dictate the terms of surrender to the company," including bringing back the striking workers, Kist said.

But if the company wins, replacement workers would be called back -- but only if vacancies are available, he said.

Neither side is claiming a victory yet.

"You can't say who is winning who is losing at this stage of the game," Kist said. "There's no score. You just have to wait until there's an end to it."

Union drivers are vowing to continue the strike. Kist and Opdyke said labor's power rests in organization and the ability to wait out ATC.

The company cannot hire and train enough replacements to keep the system close to full operating strength, Opdyke said.

"What they are going to have is a collapse of the system. It takes weeks to train a driver. They are going to have accidents and problems out there."

The standoff signals that it could be weeks of frequent delays and missing buses that have plagued the system since the strike began May 20. Neither side is asking for a return to negotiations and both have said they will not budge from their latest contract proposals.

Michael said Thursday that numbers on how many drivers have crossed picket lines were not available. She did not return calls this morning.

Opdyke estimated that the total force of drivers that the company can now muster is less than a third of what it needs.

And the union still has at least 400 members regularly walking the picket lines, he said.

Hundreds of drivers rallied Thursday night and this morning and vowed that they will not cross pickets lines. They are striking for wages, benefits and holiday pay.

Drivers rallied in front of Regional Transportation Commission offices this morning, part of their strategy to draw Clark County's elected leadership into the fray.

The rally came a day after Opdyke met with Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who said Thursday he is willing to serve as an arbitrator if both sides want him.

RTC officials say the union can rally at their offices, but it will not influence them. It cannot by federal law become involved in the contract talks, spokeswoman Ingrid Reisman said.

"Our contract states that in the event of a strike, ATC would provide replacement workers," Reisman said. "We cannot govern how a private company gets those workers."

But the union believes the RTC can influence the company, if not publicly then through back channels.

"We're going to show the RTC that we don't have just 50 or 60 drivers on strike," Opdyke said. "We have 500 or 600.

"We're strong, we're out there and we're not going to be intimidated."

But the union's call for solidarity has not affected the company's plans. Without a contract in place, company representatives say they have every right to hire replacement workers and terminate health insurance coverage for those on strike.

The contract for drivers expired Dec. 31. The union and company have been in fruitless talks for about eight months, including five months with a federal mediator.

Company officials said they believed they had a mutually satisfactory contract agreement in place early Tuesday morning, but a Wednesday vote by the union rejected the pact, 492-39.

The company's ultimatum to striking workers came a day later.

The company offered to bring back striking workers with a 2 percent raise retroactive to May as per the Tuesday morning agreement. The contract would give workers a 2 percent raise every six months with a 2.5 percent raise at the conclusion of the contract in September 2005.

The contract offer also included increased contributions to the health insurance plan, a provision vigorously opposed by drivers. An employee with a family now pays $95 a month to the health plan. Under the new contract, that payment could go up to $170 a month.

Drivers said they would lose any wage gains offered in the new contract because of the health plan increases. The last union counteroffer asked for 7 percent annual wage increases and no increases health plan contributions for two years.