Bus Driver Not Cowed but Might Be Canned

A vegetarian Orange County bus driver has been suspended without pay and faces possible firing for, as he views it, refusing to hurt a cow.

Bruce Anderson, a five-year veteran driver for the Orange County Transportation Authority, said Wednesday that he was ordered off his bus and put on unpaid suspension after refusing to hand out coupons to riders for free hamburgers at Carl’s Jr. restaurants.

He didn’t expect to become a poster boy for vegetarianism when he went to work early Tuesday, but as he was about to leave the depot, a supervisor gave him a stack of coupons, each worth a free hamburger. to pass out to passengers.

The giveaway, Anderson was told, is part of a promotion to encourage people to take the bus by offering them free burgers each Tuesday through June.

The 38-year-old bus driver refused to take the coupons.

“I told them that I don’t eat dead cows and no one else needs to either,” said Anderson, a strict vegetarian whose beliefs also preclude him from eating dairy products or wearing leather. “I told them that I wouldn’t support Carl’s Jr. in their slaughtering of cows.”

OCTA officials were not amused.

Half an hour later, according to Anderson’s account, authority officials met him at a bus stop with a replacement driver, ordered him off the bus in front of his passengers and suspended him indefinitely without pay for insubordination.

“It was embarrassing,” Anderson said. “I’m paid to drive a bus, not sit there and hand out coupons for something I don’t believe in.”

Anderson’s employers didn’t dispute his version of being forced off the bus, and sent a letter informing him of a “hearing before discharge or disqualification” on the grounds of “insubordination.”

A spokesman for the authority, John Standiford, wouldn’t discuss the Anderson case, but did say, “the passing out of coupons, in this case, is part of operating the bus. It’s one of the many things that drivers do as part of their jobs, like handing out transfers or calling out stops. If drivers make conscious decisions not to do part of their jobs, they have to be held accountable.”

The suspended bus driver has already garnered the strong support of a local animal rights group he belongs to.

“We think this [suspension] is completely out of bounds,” said Ava Park, founder of Orange County People for Animals, a 2,300-member animal rights group which, like Anderson, is opposed to the slaughtering and consumption of animals for reasons of both ethics and health.

“It’s a 1st Amendment issue,” Park said. “You don’t leave your ethics at the door when you go to work. He is being asked to pass out propaganda opposed to his ethical beliefs. This is bully-ism at its worst.”

Park said her group will do “whatever is necessary” to support the suspended driver, including eliciting the aid of other civil rights groups, initiating a legal challenge of the authority’s action and accompanying him to his pre-discharge hearing today.

Anderson said he’s being backed by the Teamsters Union Local 952. Union officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Carl’s Jr. said the hamburger promotion will continue.

“The decision to eat meat is a personal one,” company spokeswoman Suzi Brown said. “It’s an unfortunate incident with this driver, but from what we understand, many of the other drivers are very excited and supportive of the program.”

But as much as he wants to keep his $16.60-an-hour job, the vegetarian bus driver said, he will never cave in to the hamburger interest.

“What I did,” he said, “probably saved at least half a cow.”