Bus firm threatens outspoken drivers with firing

Thursday, Jan. 23, 2003 | 11:08 a.m.

Three bus drivers who spoke out about safety concerns say they have been notified that they will probably be fired.

The three Citizens Area Transit drivers, who spoke at a Jan. 9 commission meeting, said they received the notice Wednesday from the management company for the local Regional Transportation Commission bus service.

The drivers said the company has targeted them because of their comments at the commission meeting and because they have formed a group to protest the safety and working conditions on the bus service.

A letter from the company to the drivers says the drivers are in trouble for attempting to influence contract talks, not for discussing the safety issues.

"This is not a retaliation for them forming an association," said Valerie Michael, spokeswoman for ATC, the management company. "There is not a directive that says don't tell the public about safety issues."

She said the bus system has consistently been rated one of the safest in the country.

"We take safety very, very seriously," Michael said. "We would never intentionally put our riders or our operators at risk."

The commission on Jan. 9 voted 6-0 to extend its contract with ATC, the management company, until 2008. The extension is worth about $50 million a year.

After the vote, the drivers enumerated concerns with working conditions and bus safety that included the first public disclosure that a wheel assembly had come off a passenger-filled bus in December. No one was hurt in the incident, which occurred on Interstate 15.

The drivers targeted by the management company are Gene Smith, Steve Mora and Ben Carter. All three attended the Jan. 9 meeting, and are leaders of a new workers' group dubbed the Transit Drivers Association of Nevada. The group was formed as an alternative to the troubled official drivers' union, now under direct management by the international union leadership, which negotiated an unpopular contract following a bitter five-week strike last summer.

The three charged that they have been targeted in order to kill the new association, which has signed about two-thirds of drivers and mechanics in just a few months of existence.

"It's in retaliation for forming the association," Mora said. "They are trying to silence us."

Mora said the company is particularly concerned that the drivers are publicly reporting safety problems with the buses, which serve about 50 routes throughout the Las Vegas Valley.

The three had identical stories of an interrogation early Wednesday morning: They were pulled individually by company supervisors into a closed room, required to turn over their cell phones, denied union representation and handed a letter detailing the company's stance.

The letter told the drivers that they had "disparaged ATC in an effort to either cause the cancellation of ATC services or a reconsideration or rejection of RTC's decision to extend its contract with ATC."

The letter instructs the drivers that they must fully cooperate with the company's investigation.

Failure to cooperate, the letter warns, is grounds for termination.

The three said they have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board and the Amalgamated Transit Union, which still is certified as the bargaining agent for the drivers and mechanics.

Union officials could not be reached for comment.

Michael said the company could not respond specifically to some of the drivers' charges because it is an internal personnel issue.

RTC spokeswoman Ingrid Reisman said her agency cannot comment on the issue because it involves the management company and its workers.

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