VTA union postpones vote pending new offer as strike continues
The union that represents striking public-transit workers in Silicon Valley has postponed a contract vote until March 23, pending a new offer from the Valley Transportation Authority.
“The board chair called a special board meeting that is scheduled for 10 a.m. tomorrow,” Raj Singh, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 265, said on Saturday evening. “We were told that an offer will be presented. Thus, the vote was postponed.”
“Tomorrow’s board meeting will be a closed-session discussion regarding union negotiations and the board will announce what was discussed afterward, if there are any actions taken,” said VTA spokesperson Stacey Hendler Ross.
Results will probably be announced after 12 p.m. on Sunday, Singh said.
For now, the strike continues to approach its two-week point. Thousands of riders have been stranded, with no service available on either VTA bus or light rail.
ATU Local 265, the union that represents more than 1,500 VTA workers, called the strike on March 10 to try to achieve two goals: an 18 percent pay raise over three years and the ability to settle worker conflicts with a disinterested third party, rather than going to court.
The VTA had offered a compromise of a 10.5 percent raise over three years, and language for arbitration that both sides agreed to. The union was supposed to vote on this new contract Saturday, with union leaders urging their workers to vote a unanimous “no” because they said they’d hit a “deadlock” with the transit agency.
“Management made it clear they would not offer more than a total 10.5% increase, justifying their position by citing reasons such as ATU’s highest offer in the past decade, claims that we are ‘uneducated workers,’ budget constraints, and the potential need to cut services,” union leadership wrote in a letter on Thursday.
“ATU leadership has held its members and the riders who depend on public transportation for their livelihood hostage for two weeks,” the VTA said earlier this week.
This year, the VTA’s budget deficit could stretch beyond $46 million. It is projected that the agency will be in a deficit for each of the five following years, according to VTA Controller Jayden Sangha. A large raise for union members will be “digging a deeper hole in that deficit,” he said.
— Staff writer Caelyn Pender contributed to this report.