Anaheim : Buses to Resume Routes, Airport Services Says

Officials of Airport Services Inc. have announced that they will resume regular bus service from Orange County to regional airports today, after hiring drivers and ticket clerks to replace 137 union members who walked out three weeks ago.

Don Boyles, president of the Anaheim-based firm, said in a statement that the company “has hired and trained sufficient replacement professional coach operators to enable the company to restore” normal holiday-season bus service in Orange County.

According to Boyles, 25 newly trained bus drivers have been hired to resume the seasonal schedule service and 60 more bus drivers are expected to be hired before Christmas. Talks between the firm and representatives of the workers have completely broken down, Boyles said, and any immediate resumption of talks is not likely.

The bus firm admitted that the strike had contributed to a “diminished service during part of November.”

Gerry Scott, chief executive of Teamsters Local 952 which represents the striking workers, said employees of the company will remain on strike. Scott added that the company’s announcement of hiring replacement workers was a “ploy on management’s part.”

“We don’t believe that they have replaced the drivers,” Scott said. “In the old contract they told us they would take a year to train drivers and now they’re saying they could do it in a week. I think the attitude of the company to put unqualified people on our freeways and city streets is a public-be-damned attitude.”

Boyles denied that there was any written agreement on the length it takes to train drivers and said all drivers were being properly trained. At the crux of the labor dispute was the company’s decision to ask employees to accept an 11.5% wage and benefit cut to lower the owners’ operating cost. Top wages before the strike were $10.95 an hour for bus drivers and $10.10 per hour for clerks.

Scott said that workers have been picketing at Airport Services terminals at John Wayne and Los Angeles International airports and outside the Disneyland Hotel since the strike was called on Nov. 7.

Beginning today, 35 daily scheduled trips will take place between John Wayne and Los Angeles International airports and another 35 daily scheduled bus services will resume between John Wayne and the Anaheim and Disneyland area, Boyles said.