Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Board Rules Against Striking Transit Workers : Labor: NLRB says transit operator did not engage in unfair practices. The decision means the picketing employees’ jobs are not guaranteed.

After walking a picket line for more than two months, about 85 drivers, mechanics and other employees of the operator of the Antelope Valley’s public transit system face an uncertain future.

The National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday concluded that DAVE Transportation Services did not engage in unfair labor practices against the striking employees, members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 572.

The decision, which the Teamsters plan to appeal, means the striking workers’ jobs are not guaranteed. Instead, any of the pickets who ask to return to work will be put on a waiting list and returned to their former positions only as they become available.

Had the NLRB agreed with the Teamsters that DAVE Transportation had engaged in unfair labor practices, the company would have been required by federal law to give the striking workers their jobs back. DAVE Transportation, the Santa Ana-based company that operates the bus service for the Antelope Valley Transit Authority, has already hired more than 80 replacement workers.

“We’ve filled the positions,” said Dave Smith, general manager of the bus company’s Antelope Valley operation. “We’re working people, keeping the operation going.”

Nathan Mackey, a spokesman for the striking workers, said neither he nor the others on the picket line are upset about the labor board’s decision. They are confident the decision will favor the Teamsters when it is appealed.

“Naturally, you want a victory right off the top,” said Mackey, noting the picketing will continue. “We’ll continue standing strong.”

A striking bus driver said, “I can’t believe they even ruled against us.”

Officials from Teamsters Local 572 failed to return repeated telephone calls.

Ralph Phillips, an Encino attorney representing the Teamsters in the unfair labor practices complaint against DAVE Transportation, believes the regional NLRB office that made the decision “overlooked important facts and legal issues.”

Sidney Rosen, acting regional director of the Los Angeles office that issued the decision, said the Teamsters “did not present to us sufficient evidence” that DAVE Transportation engaged in unfair labor practices.”

The appeal must be filed with the labor board’s office of appeals in Washington no more than two weeks from the Dec. 29 issue date of the regional office’s letter.

Rosen said most decisions are appealed. A decision on the appeal will likely take 30 to 90 days.

About 80 DAVE Transportation bus drivers and mechanics went on strike Oct. 25, disrupting public transit in the Antelope Valley. The pickets, who had voted in May to join Teamsters, contended the company had failed to bargain in good faith in the negotiation of a first contract.

Bus service in the Antelope Valley returned to normal about five weeks into the strike.

Strikers were initially keeping a 24-hour vigil outside the DAVE Transportation/Antelope Valley Transit Authority offices in Lancaster. As the strike dragged on and as the weather turned cold, the pickets reduced their hours but continue to have a presence, Mackey said.

Early this month, a temporary restraining order was issued against the striking workers after DAVE Transportation said the pickets had “made threats, used abusive language” and the like.

The order, which remains in effect pending a court hearing next month, prohibits the pickets from using foul language, blocking buses and intimidating people who have crossed the line to work.

The picket line turned violent in November when a DAVE Transportation employee fired a shot from a semiautomatic pistol during a confrontation with the strikers.