Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Picketing Antelope Valley Transit Workers Keep a Lonely Vigil : Strike: Union and management are due to meet with federal mediator for the first time since November.

Five months after 80 bus drivers and mechanics struck the Antelope Valley’s public transit system, the strikers continue their lonely vigil on the picket line.

Bus service has returned to levels provided before strike began Oct. 25, 1993, and striking workers say the community support they had hoped for never materialized. Despite that, strikers insist they are prepared to carry on.

Today the fledgling International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 572 and DAVE Transportation Services Inc. are scheduled to meet with a federal mediator for the first time since November, said John Helm, a regional manager for Santa Ana-based DAVE Transportation.

“We’re coming in to see what the union has requested,” Helm said. “We’re just going to meet with them and see what they have to say.”

The last five months have been challenging for the union, with some members finding other work, said Nathan Mackey, a striking bus driver and spokesman for the picketers.

“Everybody’s still standing strong,” said Mackey of his fellow strikers. “They’re determined to stay out there until this thing’s settled one way or the other.”

The union was rebuffed by the National Labor Relations Board in December and again last week, when the board dismissed two separate charges of unfair labor practices filed by the union, which has appealed the December decision and has until March 31 to appeal the recent dismissal.

Meanwhile, the pickets keep a lonely vigil in small groups across the street from the Lancaster office of DAVE Transportation, the operator of the Antelope Valley’s public transit system. They picket around the clock, seven days a week--although on some days they are hardly noticeable as they seek shelter from the weather in their cars.

The pickets have been ordered not to use foul language, block buses or intimidate those reporting for work. The court order, which was not contested by the union, was issued late last year after the firm accused the picketers of, among other things, making threats and using abusive language.

For the most part, Mackey said, strikers are keeping a positive attitude, each spending four hours a day on the line despite howling winds and biting cold, often huddling around fires lit in a large metal barrel.

“I ain’t got no negative thoughts about losing,” striker Robert Ashford said. “We’re going to keep on going and we’re going to win. It might take a little time, but we’re going to get it.”

Mackey said, “We have a purpose for coming out there and we know we’re right.”

The workers, who voted last May to join the union, went on strike in October because they felt progress was not being made in the negotiation of their first contract. They are seeking higher wages, improved working conditions and benefits for part-timers.

“Until they come to our agreements, we’re going to keep on striking,” said Ashford, a bus driver who had been working for DAVE Transportation about 18 months before the walkout. “So far they have not done what we want.”