Orange County Transit Union Calls Off Strike : Drivers Clash With Security Guards at District Offices; Still Without Contract After Walkout

Orange County bus drivers ended their strike Saturday, no better off than they were Dec. 8 when they walked off the job, stranding more than 100,000 regular commuters.

About 500 strikers lined up to reclaim their jobs at Orange County Transportation District headquarters in Garden Grove, where several scuffles broke out between union officials and district security personnel.

The OCTD had threatened to begin hiring permanent replacements Monday if striking workers did not return. OCTD officials said there will be no bus service today, but regular service on all routes will begin Monday morning.

Juliene K. Smith, general chairwoman of the Tustin-based United Transportation Union Local 19, said the decision to return to work was not a capitulation to the OCTD’s refusal to budge from its “last and final” contract offer of Dec. 5.

Returning Without Contract

“Our returning to work has nothing to do with continuing negotiations,” she said.

At the OCTD, spokeswoman Joanne Curran said: “The drivers are coming back without a contract. . . . We welcome them back.”

About 500 of the 700 or so striking drivers gathered Saturday for 45 minutes at the Santa Ana police annex, where the union’s negotiating committee recommended that the drivers return to work. No vote was taken, Smith said, and most drivers leaving the closed meeting declined comment.

The drivers then went in a car caravan to OCTD offices to sign up for their jobs.

Assaults Alleged

In the parking lot and inside the building, a number of union members, including James L. Evans, attorney for UTU Local 19, said they were assaulted with night sticks and chemical tear gas spray as they tried to reclaim their jobs. The union members drove to the Garden Grove Police Department where they filed crime reports alleging that three people had been assaulted, police said.

Statements were taken at the district offices from the OCTD security officers, four of whom said they were assaulted by the union members, Police Lt. Stu Finkelstein said.

The union leaders claimed that the OCTD officials had been informed by radio that the bus drivers were en route to sign up for their jobs, and that the van in which several of them, including Evans, were riding was waved into the OCTD parking lot where, they said, they were accosted.

OCTD officials said that the mass sign-up was unnecessary, and under the ultimatum issued by OCTD General Manager James P. Reichert and as stated by a sign posted at headquarters, strikers only needed to show up for work as scheduled Monday to keep their jobs.

“We’re letting Garden Grove police investigate the incident,” Curran said. She acknowledged that security Saturday was “makeshift” and “kind of haphazardly put together,” and that company security personnel may have been “caught somewhat unaware” by the arrival of several hundred strikers.

However, another official acknowledged that OCTD officials knew that the strikers were en route from Santa Ana after the union meeting.

The union had sought a 13% pay hike over 3 1/2 years, and the district had offered 7.5% over the same period. The top wage for a driver is now $13 an hour. The proposed contract would allow the district to increase drug testing and tighten discipline for unexcused absences. It also would allow 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.

On Dec. 7 the drivers voted 480 to 120 to reject the contract and to strike.

Judge Limits Picketing

Four days later, the OCTD went to Orange County Superior Court and obtained an order from Judge William F. Rylaarsdam temporarily restraining Local 19 from mass picketing at four sites, saying it had created a “dangerous condition.” A state mediator shuttled between union and district negotiators’ hotel rooms, but the OCTD offered no new proposals.

Last Monday, the OCTD board, meeting in executive session, voted to warn the strikers that those drivers who did not return to their jobs on Dec. 22 would be replaced.

Then, declaring that negotiations were at an impasse, the OCTD on Friday announced it had implemented some sections of a new labor contract without even the 7.5% pay hike.

As the strike continued, some drivers returned to work and, using supervisory personnel and driver trainees, the district gradually increased the number of routes in service to 14 of 53, with ridership up to about one-third of normal. On only one day, Dec. 14, was there no bus service at all.

Until Saturday, the union insisted that the strike would continue. A request by the union that OCTD’s mechanics honor local picket lines went unanswered by members of Local 942 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the mechanics’ union, who were preoccupied with elections.

Evans said Friday that the union would “go to court as soon as possible” to challenge the district’s assertion that negotiations were at an impasse. “They can’t do this unless both sides declare an impasse, “ he said, and negotiations were continuing.

After the strikers returned Saturday, Evans said that the walkout and picketing were “very fruitful.” Returning to work, he said, “shows unity, strength and solidarity.”

Passengers Voice Approval

Across from the Santa Ana meeting Saturday, bus passengers and substitute drivers at the OCTD Transportation Center voiced approval of the drivers’ decision. Those most seriously affected by the walkout were the poor and the elderly.

Genoveva Iglesias of Santa Ana, who had been doing some Christmas shopping with her family Saturday, said she had had difficulty getting to her night job in Costa Mesa at a plastic-fabrics factory, having to wait for more than an hour for a bus. Finishing at 3 a.m. presented even greater problems, she said.

Dan Valles of Garden Grove, who was behind the wheel of an OCTD bus, said that the “cessation of hostilities” meant that “my life gets back to normal,” enabling him to go back to his regular job as a maintenance supervisor.

The only other strike in OCTD history occurred in 1981 and lasted 22 days.