Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Talks Fail in Antelope Valley Bus Strike

Three all-day negotiating sessions with a federal mediator have failed to bring an end to a strike of bus drivers and mechanics against the operator of the Antelope Valley’s public transit system.

The strike entered its third week Monday.

Local bus service and the door-to-door Dial-a-Ride service for senior citizens and the disabled continue at reduced levels, while commuter runs to downtown Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley are operating at 100%, said Bill Budlong, executive director of the Antelope Valley Transit Authority.

Service on the local routes was reduced even further effective Saturday to allow DAVE Transportation an opportunity to train the replacement employees it began hiring shortly after the strike started, Budlong said. Buses are running along the five routes only from about 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with waits between buses of one to two hours.

More than 80 mechanics and drivers on Oct. 25 initiated a work stoppage against DAVE Transportation Services Inc., the company the transit authority contracts to operate the transit system. Three or four dispatchers, who are not part of the union, walked off the job last week in support of the strikers.

The striking workers, who voted in May to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 572, accused the company of, among other things, failing to bargain in good faith in the development of a first contract. DAVE Transportation officials have denied the charges.

A federal mediator met with the strikers, union representatives and Santa Ana-based DAVE Transportation on Oct. 28 and again Thursday and Friday. The most recent contract offer proposed by DAVE to the drivers was rejected Sunday. The mechanics submitted a counterproposal to which DAVE has not yet responded.

“We’re contacting the federal mediator and we’ll take it from there,” said John Helm, a regional manager for the bus company.

Budlong said AVTA continues to receive a lot of telephone calls from transit users who are angered by the reduced service.

“It’s just dragging on,” Budlong said. “I want to see the thing resolved.”

Although AVTA’s contract with DAVE Transportation allows it to hire a second party to ensure that all services are maintained at regular levels, so far Budlong said he does not want to do that since progress is being made.

Even if the strikers do not return to work, Budlong said, services will be back at pre-strike levels in the next two to four weeks.

Helm said, “We’re still hoping the groups will accept our proposal, come back to work and we’ll be able to enter into a contract.”

Mike Worley, business representative at the local Teamsters office, said, however, that based on what DAVE Transportation is offering its workers, “it makes us wonder if they are serious about wanting to settle this.”