I’ve been hanging out with the Sun Tran strikers at the Ronstadt Transit Center, listening to the reasons they’re so passionate about this protest. I met Kirk, who’s been a bus driver for six years, and he told me about the time he was stabbed twice in the chest while on the job. Across the street, there was Julie, a Tucsonan who relies on the bus to get to work. Her route is among the more than 30 not in circulation at the moment, which caused her to lose her job. She will not be able to pay rent and fears being evicted.
We’ll have a story on what we’ve been hearing from many of you out there on next week’s issue. But here are some photographs I took this morning.
This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2015.
Having had to dodge plenty of very poorly driven buses and tried not to breathe diesel-and-burning-oil exhaust from some of these relics of a bygone age that are “maintained” by Teamsters, I have no sympathy at all for the union or their members. Having seen some of what the union is demanding, I think it’s high time to replace them with people willing to work for a fair wage and decent benefits and not the outrageous pay and benefits being demanded by Local 104. Fully-paid healthcare, an additional $5 per hour in pay (to more than $24 per hour) and $5+ per hour worked into your pension? Ridiculous!
I have ridden the bus for about 2 years now, if the previous poster thinks bus drivers are bad, maybe he should take a trip in the bus to see what perfect drivers the public is. I am amazed there have not been more accidents, not because of the buses but the drivers cutting off the buses. I will bet the 24 dollars an hour is only for the senior drivers. Last year this strike happened and they were able to get the younger drivers an increase in the starting pay. Think about this, last year the starting pay was about 5 dollars an hour less than the garbage truck drivers were making (nothing against the drivers of the garbage trucks). Seems a little unbalanced considering the fact that human lives are in the hands of the bus drivers (and you should see the crap they have to put up with). You do what you need to, to help yourselves and your family.
This is off the Los Angeles MTA website:
Bus Drivers: Operators start at $11.80 per hour during training, $14.91 after training. Pay rate increases incrementally according to the union contract. Top wage is $22.94 after 48 months.
When you correct Sun Tran drivers pay for Tucson’s cost of living they are making out like bandits in comparison to MTA drivers in other cities.
I wonder how their salaries compare to Phoenix or other larger cities when corrected for cost of living?
Almost half of Sun Trans drivers are making the top pay of $19.22 an hour, only 3 bucks less an hour than the LA MTA….
I
Maria,
I heard that TUSD is being forced to cover some Sun Tran routes that students were dependent on, costing TUSD thousands everyday the strike continues.
Is there any truth to this?
There’s two sides to every story, the drivers have one, the city has another. Actually, there’s a third side, the taxpaer, who funds everything, even the dumb decisions made by the mayor and city council. The bus drivers have a good deal, considering Tucson and it’s low pay scale for every job. The riders should be picking up part of the tab, nothing is free, even if your poor.
Bus drivers are not as innocent as they seem. I’ve experienced some very rude unethical drivers who cut off cars,speed through lights, slam on breaks, leave people at stops,fly by at night. Our safety matters too. Stop being greedy, don’t like sitting on your ass all day to drive a bus? Get a new job. Asking for tax payers to support 20.7 million demands is wrong. It’s robbing us.
There are good and bad bus drivers just like in every other group of workers. Some are kind, some are just plain rude. That’s just the way people are. I agree that the mold and safety issues should be taken care of – obviously nobody in the city has thought long term about probable lawsuits in the future. Clean up the mold and put some sort of protective barrier (with AC and heating) like you see at some banks for the drivers and I’m guessing enough of the drivers will be happy to go back to work.
I ride the bus 2 days a week, and have for the past year.
The buses I ride are clean the drivers are professional. The air conditioning always works.
Many of the people who I have personally witnessed riding the bus are low income wage earners, the elderly and the disabled. I was actually amazed at the large number of disabled riders that Tucson has that utilize the bus.
Community College and High School students are also a majority of the ridership.
Public Transportation is a necessity in any healthy community or small city.
I can only hope that this strike ends soon and the workers get what is FAIR.