LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A day after they failed to get intercession from the Lake Transit Authority Board in a labor dispute, striking transit workers voted to immediately return to work.
The 28 striking members of Teamsters Local 665 voted to return to work at Lake Transit unconditionally in order to restore full service on Friday, according to a Thursday afternoon statement released by the union.
Teamsters Local President Ralph Miranda said the workers are planning to show up at 6 a.m. Friday.
“They're anxious to get back to work but they're also genuinely concerned about the inexperienced drivers that are on the road,” said Miranda, noting that striking workers have followed the buses and witnessed safety issues.
The union wasn't sure on Thursday afternoon if Paratransit Services – the Washington-based nonprofit that has held the operations agreement for Lake Transit since 2007 – would be ready to accept workers back on Friday. Miranda suggested it could take several days to get drivers back to work.
Christie Scheffer, Paratransit Services' executive vice president and chief operating officer, said in an email message to Lake County News early Thursday evening that under the National Labor Relations Act, Paratransit Services has five days to process the return to work.
“The reason for this is to insure that all administrative matters are handled in a legally appropriate manner and the rights of all parties are protected in the process,” she said.
Scheffer said Paratransit Services will retain and continue to train the replacement workers it has hired since the strike began.
She said striking employees will be placed on a preferential recall list and brought back to work to fill open positions.
The union members began an indefinite strike on July 29 after failing to reach an agreement for a new three-year contract with Paratransit Services.
Union members say they want step pay increases – which they agreed to give up in 2010 due to the bad economy – restored in the new agreement.
On Wednesday they and their supporters filled the Lakeport City Council chambers and asked the Lake Transit Authority Board to create a fact-finding group and to support binding arbitration, as Lake County News has reported.
However, the board told the union that Lake Transit's contract with Paratransit Services prohibited them from interfering in the employer-employee relationship.
On Thursday, state Sen. Noreen Evans and Assemblymember Mariko Yamada sent Miranda and Lake Transit General Manager Mark Wall a letter supporting binding arbitration “to bring the current labor dispute to a speedy, fair and equitable conclusion.”
The letter continued, “This impasse in negotiations has thus far caused considerable harm to some of our most vulnerable constituents, many of whom rely on these services to conduct their daily lives.”
Miranda said the union also has contacted Congressman Mike Thompson and Congressman John Garamendi to ask for their support for binding arbitration.
Yamada is scheduled to be in Lower Lake at 2:30 p.m. Friday to visit with workers and union officials.
Lake Transit had planned to increase some of its curtailed services beginning on Friday, reporting that more routes would be added back and full service restoration would take place beginning Sept. 3.
The union and its striking workers have maintained that full service restoration was impossible with the replacement workers Paratransit Services has been hiring since the strike began.
Scheffer said Thursday Paratransit Services is moving forward with its service restoration plan, and they're working closely with their attorney “to make sure that we manage the return to work appropriately.
Despite the vote to return to work, Miranda emphasized, “We're still at odds in negotiations.”
At the Wednesday board meeting Miranda had indicated he would contact the federal mediator involved in the negotiations to ask that Paratransit Services return to the table. On Thursday he emailed that request to the mediator.
“I await their response,” he said.
Scheffer told Lake County News that Paratransit Services would return to the bargaining table if the federal mediator asked them to do so.
In her Thursday evening message Scheffer said Paratransit would continue to bargain with the union in good faith.
The 28 striking workers have been getting out-of-work benefits from the union and received their most recent paychecks, which are staggered every two weeks, which is helping them make ends meet, said Miranda. “They're doing OK.”
Miranda said none of the striking workers have received any vacation cash outs, which Scheffer confirmed.
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