UNI0N transit workers in Austin were told on Tuesday that they would either have to give up raises they won in a recent strike or give up more bus routes to non-UNI0N employees.
According to a story in Thursday’s Austin American-Statesman, the UNI0N replied to Capital Metro management by requesting (1) financial information on top administrative staff and (2) a complete accounting “of how the agency in the past six years spent a reserve fund of more than $200 million that is nearly gone.”
“We want to see how the money has really been spent before we make that determination,” said UNI0N local president Jay Wyatt. “We’re not going to make it blind and in the dark.”
The Amalgamated Transit UNI0N Local 1091 represents more than 800 Capital Metro drivers, mechanics and maintenance workers.
UNI0N workers are scheduled to get a 1.5 percent raise July 1 and another 1.5 percent in January.
Transit management says the system needs the UNI0N to give back those hard-won raises in order to offset declining sales-tax revenues.
According to the newspaper report: “Outside contractors Veolia Transportation and First Transit furnish bus drivers and mechanics for 21 of Capital Metro’s 71 regular routes. The number of outsourced routes has increased steadily in recent years, including four routes shifted to contractors in January.”
Note: our anti-hacking security at TCRR bans a word from our database which we therefore spell in upper case with a zero: UNI0N.–gm
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