Armored Car Drivers Strike Over Wage Cut

About 400 armored car drivers went on strike in several California counties Monday, forcing some large banks, supermarket chains and department stores to find other armored car firms to move large amounts of cash.

Drivers at Armored Transport of California Inc. said they are striking over unilaterally imposed reductions in wages and benefits. They set up a picket line at the company’s downtown Los Angeles headquarters and said they also are demonstrating at company facilities in Orange, San Bernardino, Ventura, Oakland, Sacramento and San Francisco.

Robert G. Irvin, president of Armored Transport, said the company had imposed the changes because it lost a large contract with the Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco on Nov. 1. He said the bulk of the business had gone to Loomis Armored Car Service Inc. and Brinks Inc., his company’s two principal competitors. Irvin said those two companies could underbid him because they pay lower wages to their drivers.

Irvin said Armored Transport normally operates 60 armored trucks a day out of Los Angeles alone and said the company will be able to operate only six or seven with management personnel.

“We have no intention of trying to keep up with the normal volume,” he said. “It would be impossible.” Armored Transport normally makes pickups and deliveries of large amounts of cash to supermarkets, department stores and banks daily.

Armored car drivers are required to be licensed by the California Bureau of Consumer Affairs. Irvin said he does not plan at present to hire replacement workers in Los Angeles.

“It’s difficult to hire replacement employees,” he said. “It takes training and investigation.”

No New Talks Set

The two sides had their last bargaining session last week and no further talks have been scheduled.

Irvin said the impact of the strike will be felt especially by his supermarket clients, already hit by a three-week strike and lockout of meat cutters and Teamsters.

Spokesmen for Safeway and Vons said they had made arrangements for other armored cars to handle their cash deliveries. Security Pacific National Bank said it had arranged for major customers served by Armored Transport, including Bullocks department stores and Vons supermarkets, to make deposits at local branches rather than transporting it to regional offices.

Ron Supinsky, a spokesman for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said Armored Transport still handles “six or seven runs a day for us in Los Angeles.”

Wages, Benefits

Armored Transport unilaterally imposed wage and benefit cuts two weeks ago, according to Nick Scarpelli, an official of Cash and Securities Handlers Assn., an independent union representing the drivers. He said wages of drivers were cut 10%, which for top-of-scale workers meant a cut from $12.61 an hour to $11.40.

Scarpelli also said the company has cut back on vacations, sick days and medical benefits. Additionally, he said, drivers will now have to work 50 rather than 40 hours or more per week to be eligible for overtime pay.

Irvin acknowledged the wage cuts and the change in overtime rules. He maintained that the company increased total medical benefits, but raised the amount of deductible payments per family from $200 to $500 a year.

He said company’s parent firm, Armored Transport Inc., also operates armored trucks in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Washington. Irvin said the struck firm, Armored Transport of California, which is privately owned, as is the parent company, had gross sales “of about $30 million” last year. He declined to say what the firm’s profits were.

Times staff writer John M. Broder contributed to this story.