Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Shot Fired Near Transit Picket Line : Labor: A Whittier man is arrested after a confrontation with striking mechanics and bus drivers.

A man who crossed a picket line fired a shot from a semiautomatic pistol during a confrontation Tuesday with the bus drivers and mechanics striking against DAVE Transportation Services Inc.

Nobody was hurt in the incident. Whittier resident Dung Pham, 31, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon shortly after the 6:22 a.m. incident outside the DAVE Transportation/Antelope Valley Transit Authority offices near 10th Street West and Avenue L-12. He was being held Tuesday at the Antelope Valley sheriff’s station in lieu of $20,000 bail.

About 80 bus drivers and mechanics went on strike against DAVE Transportation on Oct. 25, accusing the company of unfair labor practices involving the negotiation of an initial contract following the workers’ decision to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 572.

Since the strike began, the bus drivers, mechanics and their supporters have been picketing 24 hours a day outside DAVE Transportation’s Lancaster office. The Santa Ana-based company works under contract to the AVTA to operate the Antelope Valley’s public transit system.

Until it is able to hire and train replacement workers, DAVE Transportation has transferred employees, including Pham, from its other Southern California locations to work in the Antelope Valley.

Pham, a maintenance worker, had just dropped off another out-of-town DAVE Transportation worker at the company’s Lancaster office Tuesday morning when “several of the picketers began arguing with (Pham),” said sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Bob Denham.

The picketers, said Denham, kicked Pham’s car. He said Pham then took out a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol and fired a single shot. Denham said it was not known whether Pham fired into the crowd, into the air or into the ground.

Pham was arrested about 20 minutes later at a hotel in Palmdale where DAVE Transportation is providing lodging for its out-of-town employees. The gun was found in Pham’s hotel room.

Dave Smith, general manager for the bus contractor, said Pham was suspended after the incident Tuesday pending internal and Sheriff’s Department investigations.

Smith, who said he knew little about Tuesday’s incident, said the Sheriff’s Department has been called to DAVE Transportation several times since the strike began. For example, the striking workers, he said, have blocked the bus driveway.

“There’s been a lot of heavy language, a lot of sign language,” Smith said. “Out on the routes, not just in front of the building.”

The escalation of the problems, however, is what most concerns Bill Budlong, AVTA executive director, as the strike continues for a fourth week with no resolution in sight.

“I’m concerned that there’s confrontation,” he said. “I’m concerned that confrontation is going to get greater as we go along here.”

In hopes of reducing the problems, Smith said he has told all his employees to ignore the strikers and instead write a report about anything that occurs. “I have a very firm stance that I do not want any confrontation or physical encounters.”

DAVE Transportation has had two guards at its Lancaster office since the strike began. The Sheriff’s Department has also made regular patrol checks in the area.

As to whether any of the picketers who kicked Pham’s car could face charges, Denham said, “it’s still early in this investigation. I don’t know what, if any, additional charges will be filed on anybody.