OCTA Bus Drivers Turn Down Pact

Orange County bus drivers overwhelmingly rejected a contract that would have reduced pay and benefits, and instead set a strike vote for April 27.

If a majority of union members votes to strike, they could stop work as early as May 1, the day after their contract expires, said Mike Patton, a spokesman for Teamsters Local Union 952 which represents the county’s 750 bus drivers.

Orange County buses had 10.9 million riders from October through December of last year.

According to Orange County Transit Authority officials, the rejected contract was aimed at reducing a $38-million shortfall expected next year after that much in OCTA funds is transferred to county coffers to help it recover from the bankruptcy. Among other things, the contract, which has been rejected twice in two weeks, would have reduced the drivers’ current $17.06 hourly wage by 46 cents, required them to pay up to $140 more a month for health benefits and decreased their break times.

OCTA officials had warned that a rejection of the contract could lead to the privatization of the bus drivers’ jobs.

Terry Crane, a bus driver of 10 years, said Friday, “I would rather have them privatize than accept being treated as subhuman. We’ve been downgraded enough that we’re at the point where we don’t care if we have jobs or not. We have taken enough; this is a vote for human decency.”

Although union officials would not release the exact tally of Thursday’s vote, Crane said that 330 voted against the contract and 201 voted for it.

Patton described the vote as an emotional repudiation of what the drivers see as a request to “bear the brunt” of the county’s financial trouble.

“They are not unsympathetic to the county’s needs, but it’s very unfair that it’s all falling on their shoulders.”

William Hodge, the OCTA’s director of external affairs, said, “I certainly understand the coach operators’ frustration, but this is a continuing consequence of the bankruptcy. The reality is that we have fewer fiscal resources to work with and the contract reflects that.”

If the current contract expires without ratification of a new one, Hodge said, the agency will be forced to consider a number of options, including privatization of the county’s bus service or unilateral implementation of the proposed three-year contract.

Should the agency decide to privatize, other OCTA officials have said, it would be up to the new private contractor to decide whether to keep the current bus drivers.

“We are trying to keep bus operations whole,” Hodge said, “and that’s part of the dilemma. The alternative is to just start laying people off until we get the cuts we need, but we are trying to maintain service to the people of Orange County.” But Patton said the county gives little priority to those people who depend on buses.

“These coach operators represent a segment of the population that has no voice,” Patton said. “The people who control the policies of this county do not ride the bus and don’t know anybody who rides the bus; hence they don’t see buses as significant. They are significant.”