Bus Drivers Approve Omnitrans Contract Offer

Omnitrans bus drivers voted to approve a three-year labor contract offered by the transit agency to increase wages and benefits in 2014 and 2015 in the effort to prevent Omnitrans service disruptions due to a strike. The drivers, represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Local 1704, voted 265 to 38 on Dec. 2 to ratify the contract offer. A wage increase and stipend were approved by the Omnitrans Board of Directors at their Dec. 3 meeting. Acceptance of the full Memorandum of Understanding will go before the Board in January. Drivers will get a 2.75 percent wage increase immediately and 2.75 percent more in April 2015. The employee benefit allowance will increase from $970 per month for all ATU members to a new tiered plan. Employees with a single or two-party health care plan will receive $1,025 per month. Employees on a family plan get $1,145. In September 2015 the allowance will increase to $1,075 per month for employees on single or two-party health care plans and remain at $1,145 for those on a family plan. A $900 stipend will be paid to all actively working operators. “This successful vote shows that the majority of our coach operators supported this fair and generous offer,” said P. Scott Graham, CEO/General Manager of Omnitrans. “We know that our customers who make 50,000 daily trips on Omnitrans buses are relieved that the service they depend on will continue uninterrupted.” ATU represents roughly 420 Omnitrans bus drivers. The new starting wage rate is $15.89 per hour. Most drivers will earn the top rate of $21.29 per hour. With the monthly benefit package of up to $1,145, this calculates to about $58,000 annually. Omnitrans and ATU began negotiating terms of a new three-year contract in January 2013. The prior contract ended March 31, 2013. The new contract ends in March 2016. The union rejected two previous contract offers in March and October 2014. Omnitrans employs about 650 people. The transit agency has experienced only one strike in its 38-year history: a three-day walkout in 1980.