For several weeks, members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), the bus drivers, have been engaged in a strike against MV Transportation, the Dallas-based company that has been authorized to manage JTRAN. For that same length of time, hundreds who depend upon the bus service have been inconvenienced, to say the least. Although there have been continuous negotiations, it is not possible to tell when the buses will again be rolling.
One of the things that makes this strike/labor dispute different is that it is not occurring at or near the end of the current contract. The current contract has more than three months to go. This dispute is even more different because the major dispute is not about wages and hours.
The labor union, ATU Local 1208, locally headed by President Charles Tornes Jr., has compiled a list of 20+ complaints or unresolved issues that it has when it comes to MV Transportation. Among the ones that are of gravest concern to the union are the company’s six-point safety and disciplinary policy and the continued employment of Donovan Speller as Safety Manager for MV Transportation. This means that the dispute is mostly about working conditions.
According to a letter from Lea Campos, Director of Marketing and Communications, all of the concerns originally voiced by ATU had been resolved, except the one dealing with safety. Campos also stated that the strike caught the company by surprise and is unnecessary and counterproductive.
On the one hand, it may be difficult to know whether all of the other issues had been resolved, given the positions of the two sides. On the other hand, it is apparent that the safety and discipline policy is a major stumbling-block. According to President Tornes, the six-point policy was not something that had been agreed upon by the union in its original contract and that it is not compassionate when it comes to veteran drivers, who are often targeted. MV Transportation states that it is a commonsense policy that is a part of all of its other operations around the country.
The union sees it as a tool or mechanism that is used by MV Transportation to get rid of undesirable workers. (There appears to be no way to protect them with the policy in place.) They want the policy gone. Another part of the complaint regarding the use of the policy is that the union claims that because the company had underbid in order to win the contract, it now finds itself needing to cut corners – cutting workers and working them for longer hours and/or across several jobs in order to make ends meet.
The discussions have become so serious until federal mediators have been sent to Jackson to help resolve the matter. Even at that, however, the strike goes on.
The city has sent a letter to try and bring the two sides together. Nevertheless, it has been to no avail.
This brings us to the position of Councilman Kenneth Stokes. His plan is to have the city council vote to terminate the contract with MV Transportation. He feels that if the city terminates the contract, the city will then have to manage the system, at least until a more desirable company is found. He sees no problem with such an arrangement. At the same time, although he is serious on his proposal, he appears to realize that the council may not willingly take that action.
In the meantime, the union members, who drive the buses, continue to march, declaring that they want a change and that the buses must not roll because theirs is a legal strike. According to the union president, because the strike is a legal one, substitute drivers cannot be hired by the company to replace them while they are on strike.
The normal patrons of JTRAN will continue to be on their own in trying to get to work, to the doctors, to the grocery stores, and elsewhere. This may become more of a problem for them as fall stretches into winter.
