Rolling “Sick Out” Continues to Slow Bus Service

Press Releases
07/21/2010

AC Transit officials said they expect that a number of union bus operators will continue a rolling ‘sick out’ that has slowed bus service for the more than 236,000 daily riders of the East Bay bus system.

For more than a week, approximately 200 AC Transit bus drivers a day have failed to show up for work. The labor action has caused delays on certain routes, but AC Transit is continuing to operate buses on all lines.

“It’s unfortunate that many operators are still refusing to honor their public duties and that a number of our customers are suffering because of the missed service,” said Interim General Manager Mary King.

She thanked the drivers who showed up to work on time and thanked passengers for ‘sticking with us during this difficult period.”

The transit district was critical of ATU union leaders and said their claims that drivers were not trained on new routes, that they were forced to work “13 hour shifts” and that shifts were assigned arbitrarily were false.

AC Transit said all the drivers routes are well-known by the drivers, that drivers worked 8 hour shifts with breaks for lunch, and assignments to specific routes are given to drivers only if they failed to select the routes themselves.

The rolling “sickout” labor action flies in the face of an ATU pledge not to strike during impending arbitration. Last week the court ordered binding arbitration to resolve the labor dispute, largely relying on the union’s promise not to disrupt service. AC Transit is considering a legal challenge to the court’s decision.

The new contract, adopted by the District’s Board of Directors when labor negotiations stalled after the union walked away from negotiations, took effect Sunday, July 18. It instituted new work rules with regard to overtime; a co-pay policy for medical care and employee health insurance; and a two-tier pension plan.

The contract was enacted to reduce the District’s costs by $15.7 million to help stave off a projected deficit of $56 million. Without the new contract, the District will hemorrhage $1.2 million a month, which will force the District to take drastic financial steps including wide-spread employee layoffs and more severe service reductions such as the elimination of all weekend routes.

Already the agency has:
• Eliminated more than 70 general and administrative staff positions. In addition, a third of its executive staff has also been eliminated –including the elimination of three executive management staff– the use of district vehicles has been curtailed and management leave benefits have been canceled. Together, that has reduced expenses by $9.2 million. But, as yet, there have been NO layoffs to or concessions from drivers or mechanics.

• Raised fares. Local riders are paying more due to the 25 cents per trip fare increase and $10 increase in the price of a monthly pass. Transbay riders are paying more due to the 50 cents per trip fare increase and $16.50 increase in the price of a monthly pass. Youth, senior and disabled riders are paying more due to the 15 cents per trip local fare increase and 30 cents Transbay increase.

• Cut Service. Riders also had their bus service reduced in March by 7.8% or $10.3 million worth of service hours; they are facing a second round of service cuts in August that will further reduce service by 7.2% or $11.4 million in service hours.

• Reduced Spending. The Board of Directors has cut its salary by 5%, cut travel by 50%, and eliminated a special travel account for transit advocacy.

Even though significant spending reductions have been achieved with these cuts, it is still not enough to balance the budget, given that labor costs account for about 75% of the agency’s operating budget. Without contributions from the ATU members, the budget gap cannot be closed.
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