Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : No Movement Reported in Bus Strike : Labor: Each side rejects other’s offer in Friday talks. Eighty drivers and mechanics have been out five months.
Striking transit workers and their employer made no progress toward ending the 5-month-old walkout during a lengthy meeting Friday.
More than 80 bus drivers and mechanics working for DAVE Transportation Services Inc. went on strike Oct. 25. The employees, who last May voted to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 572, felt progress was not being made in contract negotiations.
The two sides met with a federal mediator several times after the strike began, although Friday’s meeting was the first overseen by the mediator since November.
Nathan Mackey, a striking bus driver, said that during the session Friday both the union and the bus company presented proposals, but neither side accepted the other’s offer.
Mackey and other pickets on Thursday had expressed optimism about the latest meeting. Nonetheless, Mackey said he was not discouraged with the lack of progress during the session.
“Hopefully there will be more negotiations,” Mackey said. “If not, we’ll wait to see what happens.”
In the meantime, he said, “we continue to picket.”
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