CAT Board of Directors approve interim contract with bus drivers union

Capital Area Transit’s board of directors approved Tuesday an interim contract with its union that contains a 2 percent pay increase and a tighter attendance policy.

Both union and management officials said they felt “positive” about the agreement — which has a term of July 1 through June 30 and has a pay increase retroactive through Jan. 1.

Board members also approved an amendment to the agreement that would take back the wage increase if the union and CAT management can’t, by June 30, reach an agreement for July 1, 2014 and onward.

Following the meeting, Bill Jones, CAT executive director, said the board took a “strong stand.”

“They’re wiling to move forward and help, you know, raise the wages of the people, but they want something really in return. And they want earnest hardcore negotiating,” Jones said. “They really want a fair agreement moving forward.”

Now, the proposal heads to the bus drivers union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1436. Union President John Keller said members would vote on it in the “very near future.”

“I don’t think it’s a bad contract,” Keller said. “First of all, it’s going to eliminate an arbitration, which is going to cost a lot of money on both sides — unnecessary money spent.”

Bus drivers have been working under the terms of an expired contract since July 1 and the parties had appeared to be been headed toward binding arbitration.

Most of the CAT board members present voted for a resolution to approve the agreement. Rick Rovegno, assistant treasurer on CAT’s board and representative for Cumberland County, was the sole vote against the agreement.

Don Geistwhite, Jr., vice chairman of CAT’s board, was absent.

Jones explained the interim agreement’s term would run from this past July to June 30. The agreement would use language from the expired union agreement but incorporates changes.

Jones explained those changes included:

• Reducing the number of occurrences — instances where employees take unscheduled time off work, such as a sick day or day off without pay — from 14 to 12 instances a year;
• Reducing the numbers of “misses” employees can have from 12 in a six-month period to nine in a 12-month period;
• Adding a 2 percent pay increase that would be retroactive to Jan. 1.

Regarding the discipline language, Keller said, following the meeting, that he thought union members “could work with it.”

During the meeting, Jones pointed out to board members those kind of amendments sometimes come at a cost.

“Anytime you negotiate changes in work rules … it is you have to buy it,” Jones said. “In turn, that’s what we’re buying here.”

Following the meeting, Jones said CAT has some transportation funding coming its way, but with things like raises in fuel and increases in health care costs, the authority would have “a tough budget coming up.”

Still, Jones said he thought the contract was “reasonable.”

That 2 percent raise in pay would cost CAT a total of $84,000 in increased labor costs over the six-month period, Jones said. On an individual level, it would bring a fixed route driver’s hourly pay from $24.80 to $25.30 an hour.

So how does that stack up with area transit authorities? Jones said, in terms of hourly rate for a fixed route driver, the regional average including CAT is $21.78. Though, that average without CAT is $19.79.

The statewide average is $21.63, Jones said.

Prior to a board discussion about the proposed contract, Rovegno said he was disinclined to support the temporary agreement based on the wage increase. In doing so, he pointed to “ongoing budget concerns,” a “desire to increase service” and CAT’s wages compared to those at other transit authorities.

“I do think that they’re fairly compensated,” Rovegno said.

When asked whether the union would seek additional raises for the next contract beyond June 30, Keller said, “let’s hope so.”

And when asked what impact the proposed contract would have considering recent service interruptions in bus routes, Keller said “drivers calling off never was an issue with routes being canceled,” Keller said.

“They don’t have enough employees to do the job,” Keller said.

Keller said CAT recently moved two part-time workers to full time and have a request out for five part-time operators.

But he said he still had concerns about staffing levels.

“Hershey Park is coming up very shortly here, and historically they put on about nine pieces of work,” Keller said. “Three of them are historically late at night till 1:30 in the morning. So they’re going to have to find people to work that.”

Bus routes were canceled a couple weeks ago because of a shortage of bus drivers. Union and management disagree on the underlying reason for that.

Eric Bugaile, chairman of CAT’s board of directors, had said CAT has enough drivers, and issues with staffing arise when people call in sick and other drivers won’t work overtime.

Source: Patriot News