Suspended Vegetarian Bus Driver Awaits OCTA Ruling

A vegetarian bus driver remained on suspension without pay Thursday after a disciplinary hearing by the Orange County Transportation Authority over his refusal to distribute free hamburger coupons to riders.

Driver Bruce Anderson, 38, who was ordered off his bus Tuesday for refusing to hand out the Carl’s Jr. coupons as part of a promotion, will learn by the end of the workday Monday whether his stand will cost him his job.

“I can’t say the hearing went well,” Anderson said Thursday. “But I think they’re scared. They know they got themselves into some kind of deep situation.”

At the hearing, a union official suggested that Anderson be given Tuesdays off through the rest of June. The promotion, in which riders are given coupons redeemable for free hamburgers at the fast food chain’s Orange County restaurants if they also buy soft drinks, is scheduled to run each Tuesday this month.

But OCTA officials were not backing down from their position that this “is really a case of insubordination,” according to spokesman John Standiford.

“It doesn’t have much to do with animal rights or vegetarianism,” Standiford said. “We really see it as an employee has a job to do and he has made a decision not to do it.”

An animal rights group, Orange County People for Animals, said it would organize a fund to help Anderson, who was earning $16.60 an hour when he was suspended.

The promotion originated with OCTA, which solicited partners for the plan as a way of increasing ridership and attracting young people to ride the bus, Carl’s Jr. spokeswoman Suzi Brown said.

“OCTA is bearing the expense of advertising and Carl’s is donating the burgers,” she said.

Anderson’s suspension has brought increased attention to the program, but not all favorable.

“It is really not the type of publicity we relish,” Brown said. “It really should be a win-win program. It is just a shame this situation has escalated to where it has taken away from the good of the program.”

OCTA officials rejected any suggestion that the incident had given the bus authority a black eye, saying public response has been evenly split.

“We have gotten a number of calls from people supporting the action,” Standiford said. “They see it as insubordination, where an employee refused to do his job.”

Thursday’s closed-door hearing included Anderson, a union official and several OCTA supervisors. A crowd of television reporters waited outside, as did a number of Anderson’s supporters.

The supervisory panel’s decision could be appealed to higher-ranking OCTA officials, Anderson and OCTA officials said.