The City of Tucson reasserted time and time again at a press conference this afternoon that they cannot stick their hands in negotiations between Sun Tran and the Teamsters Local Union 104. City Manager Michael Ortega also said that the city isn’t saving nearly as much money as the Teamsters allege for every day the strike goes on. And, as far as the Craigslist ads to search for replacement employees out of state, not much came out but a few words to deny said action.
As far as the ads go, Andy Marshall, head of the Teamsters, says Sun Tran had confirmed hiring a separate company to take care of placing ads online to hire temporary employees. As the Weekly reported earlier, Sun Tran denies the accusations.
(We thought we’d ask again later in the day, but Sun Tran stood by their previous answer.)
“Sun Tran did not place ads on Craigslist. Sun Tran has a contract with the City of Tucson and is obligated to provide bus service to the community,” Sun Tran spokesperson Kandi Young told the Weekly in an email. “Sun Tran has contracted with an outside vendor to provide a small number of coach operators to fulfill its contractual obligations. The cost for the temporary drivers to provide limited service will not exceed the transit adopted budget.”
Marshall said Sun Tran had already hired 15 workers via those ads, all of which mysteriously disappeared from Craigslist this morning. This is an unfair labor practice strike, which means Sun Tran is prohibited from firing and replacing any of the 530 bus drivers, mechanics and others picketing.
“The Democratic Party has always supposedly been labor friendly, for this City Council and mayor and city manager to be aware of the fact that Sun Tran is trying to bring in out of state temporary replacement workers, and pay them huge amounts of money is ludicrous. I don’t know if (the city) instructed Sun Tran to stop that, but the ads were pulled this morning,” he said after witnessing the city press conference, which completely underwhelmed him.
City’s Involvement
Marshall also called out the city’s repetitive remarks about not being able to get involved with negotiations, saying the mayor and City Council “absolutely” have the authority to instruct the city manager to instruct the city’s Department of Transportation to instruct Sun Tran “to do whatever they need to do” to help end the strike. (What’s happened thus far is Sun Tran made a new proposal that the Teamsters said was way, way worse than the one that started this whole thing. Marshall doesn’t see that as being willing to resolve any issues.)
“Our relationship with Transdev (you know, the company based out of France that oversees Sun Tran) is one of professional obligation,” Ortega said, after City Attorney Mike Rankin reminded people that Sun Tran employees are not city employees, and therefore. by law, the city cannot intervene. Plus, city employees do not have the right to strike, whereas company’s like Transdev and Professional Transit Management, which get funds from the federal government, have the obligation to allow their workers to strike, otherwise the feds would cut off funding.
“The mayor and council in particular cannot be involved in the labor negotiations,” Rankin said.
Ortega said he’s repeatedly suggested Transdev, and by association PTM, that they need to get back on the table and make sure the strike is resolved as fast as possible, and that Transdev has assured him that they are willing and have encouraged discussions with the Teamsters.
Savings
Since the strike began, the Teamsters have reported Sun Tran saves roughly $750,000 for every week the picketing remains, because none of the workers protesting are getting paid. Ortega says that number is actually $145,000 based on other expenses the city has had to tackle during these past 28 days (on which, again, Marshall calls bullshit).
And, what does he think about the strike nearing 30 days?
“We actually went into this with the members knowing this was going to be a battle of wills, and that they were going to try to break the union,” he said. “The fact that everybody has held strong is a testament to the solidarity…It is extremely hard on our members. They are not making any money, they have been out of a job for a month. To try to survive, and all the pressure in that, we are doing everything we can to insist, trying to get everybody back to the table.”
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2015.
I wonder how many angry people will just flat out abuse the drivers when they return to work in retaliation for the suffering they have caused with this strike? I never ride the bus but I am waiting for the news reports once they get back to work.
I don’t know what’s worse, the media making a circus out of this mess, or the union.
All you hating bastards that dislike the above two posts are as ignorant a group of herd animals as I’ve ever seen! The union is digging a hole to bury all the poor of Tucson it can cram in it, and you morons want to whine about how much the drivers deserve salary increases and better safety measures. NEWS FLASH: The strike has caused people who work harder, in worse conditions, with worse benefits packages, for less than HALF driver wage, to become UNEMPLOYED. Not temporarily like you Teamster pawns either, but until they get a brand new job. So take all your lewd strokings into a corner and amuse yourselves with the rest of the Transdev Alliance, you only sour my stomach.
Here are a some real, actual facts for the previous poster, who is woefully uninformed about the situation. Drivers are assaulted at a very high rate and the company proposal to “fix it” was to allow drivers to go home with pay for the rest of the shift in which they were assaulted. Not actually do anything to solve the problem, just put a band-aid on a gushing artery and hope it goes away.
Facilities and many buses have severe mold problems that are making employees sick (and probably some riders too, although they probably wouldn’t know to attribute their respiratory and immune system problems to riding the bus). The company gave the money allotted by the city to fix this problem back to the city so certain members of management would get bonuses for being under budget.
And the claim that the strike is putting people who work harder, in worse conditions, for less than half the wage out of work breaks down as follows….subjective claim, not a chance, false. Work harder? It is totally subjective whether working at a call center, or flipping burgers, or doing landscape work is harder than being a bus mechanic or facilities maintenance person. Being a driver may seem to not be that difficult, but they have to deal with the public, which is never easy, so I would think difficulty-wise it would be on par with fast food service, minus the assaults. It’s pretty difficult to have worse conditions than ones where you may be assaulted or exposed to toxic mold on a daily basis. I’m not even going to argue this one, because it’s a no brainer. Wages for Sun Tran employees start at $13.32 an hour, while the AZ minimum wage in 2015 is $8.05 an hour. Clearly not double and clearly not going to bankrupt Sun Tran.
I’ve been in situations where I’ve been poor enough to not own a vehicle and if transit wasn’t an option, which it isn’t in many cities, I didn’t whine about it but instead hopped on my bike and rode to work. It’s not like this is a climate where you can’t ride year round.
Perhaps you should discover the facts before you run your ignorant mouth and talk smack about people who are working in unsafe conditions and want something done about it by a company that is profitable.
Hey, why hire temporary bus drivers, hire them and make them permanent? That’ll teach the greedy union members.
If there is a mold problem, isn’t getting rid of it part of maintenance? According to the stickers on the backs of the buses, they are maintained by the Teamsters. Doesn’t that make the mold problem a Teamsters’ problem?
Why does everyone hate the unions and workers who get a decent wage so much? And why ISN’T anyone asking what the &*ll a company in FRANCE has to do, or SHOULD have to do, with Tucson’s transportation issues? Do you all just suck up anything that corporate America tells you? Do you question the big kids as much as you beat up on the little ones? Oh, Arizona……
It strikes me (pardon the pun) that the salary and benefits package enjoyed by the members of the Teamsters Union, is fair and generous. Allegations of mold in the buses and other Suntran facilities are serious and need to be addressed and corrected immediately as a public health issue. Safety? Anyone who chooses to work with the public (teachers, mental health professionals, Circle K clerks) is similarly exposed.
Wouldn’t it be great if all publicly subsidized employees had a salary/benefits package as strong as the Suntran bus drivers with higher pay for work requiring higher skills and training? Perhaps the teachers in TUSD would be better served as members of the Teamsters than as TEA members.
It seems to me that an ambitious entrepreneur could rent some vans, issue a press release and start providing an alternative to Sun Tran bus service. They could just drive the Sun Tran routes, follow the Sun Tran schedule and charge people a couple of bucks or whatever it takes to make a profit — it would surely cost people less than a taxi cab. Privately owned transportation services are very common in South America, Eastern Europe, India and many Asian countries, so it shouldn’t be that hard to operate a reasonably profitable business model like that here in Tucson.
This is a management company trying to break the UNION. The city council, manager and attorney should be fired for hiring an outside company to manage Sun Tran.
The comment by CriticalThinker about starting a privately owned alternative to Sun Tran has merit. The striking bus drivers could be hired to drive the rented vans. As ridership increases, generating more working capital, more vans could be rented until all the bus routes are completely covered. If this results in all the striking drivers having an income, and all the riders being able to get where they need to go, all without Sun Tran, the Teamsters would have a lot more leverage in their negotiations. Wouldn’t it be great if Sun Tran has to go out of business because a new privately owned transportation service hired all the bus drivers, covered all the bus routes and provided better service at the same cost?
Wow Marshall are you upset that your teamster are wasting their time picketing while others are their job… Hint the unemployment line is open for teamsters also.the public can deal with new bus drivers but can the teamsters pay their dues without a job. And they can’t pay their dues where would you be Marshall.
Persis, you are just another clueless hater. Another one crying “Well I don’t make that kind of money, why should they?” That’s an underlying tone here. Want the good pay and benefits? JOIN A UNION! And you think driving a bus is such a piece of cake. There’s a reason why Sun Tran has such a high turnover. Go back to the early days of the strike when Sun Tran/Veolia/TransDev put out their offer to the Teamsters. That offer included $.50 – yes, a fifty cents an hour raise – to the new hires ONLY and is – in Sun Tran’s words – due to recruitment and retention issues. Means that they can’t find and keep qualified people. Economics will teach you that wages are dependent on the number of people qualified and willing to do a certain job within any given population. Sun Tran had to put ads on Craigslist and fly in drivers to cross the picket line. And those illustrious scabs will be talking their $21/hr wages (including their $31.50/hr overtime) back to their home cities with them. They aren’t part of the Tucson community, living and spending their money HERE.
so typical of them all,,,and not ONE WORD ABOUT THE RIDERS
none of the involved player HAVE to take the bus…you think we take the bus cause we like it…we would like a car or a taxi drive, or even a friend for some…
teamsters don’t care about us riders…
drivers don’t care about us riders (you think we were “bad” before? just wait and see the animosity you will have brought upon yourselves…
don’t expect big smiles and congratulations from us…you are making plenty of money during these hard times…be grateful and think od all the people hurting…REALLY HURTING…cause you let your teamster boss not only put your job in jeopardy but has created more HOSTILITY towards you drivers…
i hope riders will not be nasty or ugly or throw soda on you or attack you…like you said…we could have helped you with that…at first I was VERY pro-drivers…to do whatever to protect you guy driving us…NOT ANY MORE…SCREW THE TEAMSTERS AND GET BACK TO SERVING THE POOREST IN THE COMMUNITY…WE NEED THE BUSES RUNNING…NOT PARKED BECAUSE OF LAZY, GREEDY, LYING TEAMSTERS…
many people that drive the bus would kill for a job like yours…get over yourselves bus drivers
Private vans are a bad idea because all it takes is one accident and lawsuit to sink the whole ordeal. Not to mention that unlike busses, the would have to follow the rules of regular traffic.
If we want quality bus service (and in general that’s what I’ve gotten from the bus drivers) we should not expect it from people who are paid insulting rates. I wonder how many of those complaining about how much the drivers make would feel if they were told that they were overpaid the next time they either asked or were due for a raise or how quickly they’d be inflated out of their means after a few years of frozen wages.
Why not hire guards to ride on each bus to protect the driver( and other riders) so when some high thug wants to assault a rider or a driver he gets cuffed and then arrested when they stop? Mold issue? Good old Clorox and a brush and some elbow grease. Replace any wood that can’t be cleaned. Garbage truck drivers get paid more than passenger ( or even school bus drivers) So give them a decent raise. Note to the clueless…buses must follow all the same rules of the road. These poor drivers have to put up with poor drivers, people on a suicide mission, people wanting a pay off injury and poor road conditions also. Give them a break.
Due to the bus strike, I have been unable to look for work as a temporary employee because I would not be able to travel to most work locations. Upcoming major surgery that should not be postponed will sideline me for a couple of months, so no employer will presently hire me full-time. Although friends have been able to help somewhat, I have no right to expect them to be able to do so for that entire length of time. Therefore, to me, the cost to me of this bus strike is that I am very likely to become homeless–I am a UA student, so I have no short-term disability to rely on , and I am old enough to have outlived my immediate family, so there is no help there. The homeless shelters are full. Even if I could find a place to stay, I would be on the streets during the day, and the surgical incision could become infected, or septic, if I am unable to keep it cleaned properly; homelessness is not known for being the most hygienic of living conditions. I know that not a few of those who read this will sneer or have some sarcastic answer to my comment, but please understand–the cost of this strike may not just be unemployment for a considerable number of people, and homeless for a percentage of those, but also up to and possibly including the lives of some of the people who are being affected by it.
Also, those security conditions that the bus drivers are concerned about? Well, those situations are also an ongoing concern for the riders.