OCTD Gets Tough, Drops Pay Hike From New Contract

In a get-tough move that stunned striking Orange County bus drivers, transit district officials announced Friday that they have implemented a new labor contract without the 7.5% pay hike the district had offered before the Dec. 8 walkout.

The new contract allows the district to increase drug testing and tightens discipline for unexcused absences. It also allows increased use of part-time drivers and the practice of contracting out routes and services to private firms. The union had objected to all of those provisions.

The new contract covers fill-in drivers and the permanent replacement drivers the district plans to begin hiring on Monday. Two more union members crossed the picket line on Friday morning, bringing to 36 the number of regular drivers who have decided to return to work.

“Because the parties have been at impasse over two weeks, and there is no resolution in sight, the district has determined that it is appropriate to move ahead with critically needed changes,” said James P. Reichert, general manager of the Orange County Transit District. “Therefore, substantial portions of its final offer made to the UTU (United Transportation Union) will be implemented.”

“This is a blatantly illegal labor practice,” UTU Local 19 lawyer James R. Evans said. “We will go to court as soon as possible to challenge this. They can’t do this unless both sides declare an impasse, and we were just meeting with them last night--and we’re still willing to sit down and talk. So there is no impasse.”

Evans said Local 19, which represents OCTD’s 732 drivers, probably will seek a court order Monday or Tuesday barring management from enforcing the new contract.

“As far as I know we’re not through negotiating,” said Juliene Smith, head of the Tustin-based Local 19. “This is going to infuriate the drivers. . . . Even as late as yesterday we were meeting with them and were willing to continue meeting. We felt there was movement on both sides. . . . I hardly think that this is going to make the drivers want to go back to work.”

Marlene Heyser, OCTD’s chief negotiator, disputed Evans’ claim that Friday’s contract implementation was illegal. She said “any side can declare an impasse. And when an impasse exists, an employer is free to implement its offer.”

Heyser said OCTD officials decided to implement the contract because of concerns that drivers might otherwise return to work with misplaced hopes that OCTD is going to give them more than has been offered so far, only to walk out and disrupt service again.

District officials said they expect to operate 15 of the district’s 53 routes today, the same as Friday. But, they said, there will be no Sunday service, to rest fill-in drivers who have worked all week.

Union members are scheduled to meet this afternoon, but Smith denied previous reports that the purpose of the session is to vote on whether to continue the strike. Some members had indicated that they would push for a return to work during a “cooling-off” period, but Smith said Friday that the meeting is merely to brief rank-and-file drivers.

“I’m going to move that we adjourn for ice cream,” Smith said. “There’s not going to be a vote that I know of.”

District officials said they decided not to include the 7.5% wage hike in the new contract because of doubts about whether it is legal to pay the increase to drivers who have crossed the picket line but who remain members of the same bargaining unit that has rejected the contract.

Striking driver Don Spaulding said Friday that many union members are preparing to go back to work Monday because of OCTD’s plans to hire replacements, but he said he did not know how many.

Told of the district’s action Friday, Spaulding said management “obviously is trying to break the union.”

Several drivers interviewed on the picket line Friday afternoon, before word of the contract action had reached them, said they might go back to work Monday depending on what happens at today’s union meeting.

Russ McDonald, a six-year OCTD veteran, said, “We have to stay united, and that’s what we have to see about. . . . The main thing is that whether we continue the strike or go back to work, we must do it as a whole unit.”

A driver who did not give her name said OCTD’s demand that drivers report to work Monday or be replaced would unfairly break the strike. “They really don’t give us any choice,” she said. “We end the strike and go back to work. That’s what they want. But even if we go back during a cooling-off period, we lose. Either way, we go back on their terms.”

Claudine Capriotti said she would find it difficult to go back, even during a so-called cooling-off period. “That’s hard,” she said. “I really don’t know. It would be really tough to decide on that.”

The union had sought a 13% pay hike over 3 1/2 years compared to the district’s offer of 7.5% over the same period. Currently, the top wage for a driver is $13 an hour.

Talks broke off last weekend but resumed Wednesday, only to collapse again Thursday evening over proposed letters of intent aimed at providing drivers with details on how the district’s contract would work.

OCTD negotiator Heyser said she had insisted unsuccessfully that union representatives Evans and Smith demonstrate their “good faith” by recommending ratification of the transit district’s contract to union members, as a condition of management’s approval of the letters of intent.

Heyser said without such a commitment, Evans and Smith could tell union members: “We’ve got this much out of them (the letters), so we can get even more,” thus prolonging the strike.

No new talks took place Friday, and none were scheduled.

The strike has severed most Orange County transit links with the Southern California Rapid Transit District but does not affect RTD service.

Times staff writer Ray Perez contributed to this story.