Santa Clara VTA light rail, buses shut down as workers go on strike
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail and bus service is shut down Monday as more than 1,500 front line employees have gone on strike.
Workers with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 began striking early Monday morning, including operators, maintenance staff, dispatchers, fare inspectors and customer service representatives. Both sides were not able to reach a deal after months of negotiations and the latest contract had expired last week.
VTA said in a statement that both sides had met on Sunday but there were "no meaningful negotiations." The agency said it is offering a wage increase of 4%, 3% and 2% over three years, for a total compounded increase of 9.3%.
"We understand the hardship this service disruption causes, and we are pursuing as many avenues as possible to mitigate the impact to the riding public as quickly as we can," the agency said in a statement Sunday, hours before the strike.
ATU Local 265 said in its own statement on Sunday that the strike follows negotiations it described as "frustrating and unproductive." About 96% of workers authorized a strike in a vote last month.
"We have been forced into this position because of the VTA's failure to negotiate in good faith," Union president Raj Singh said. "For months, our members have been disregarded, their sacrifices ignored, and their needs dismissed. We will not back down."
Speaking to CBS News Bay Area reporter Veronica Macias while workers were striking outside agency headquarters, Singh discussed Sunday's meeting.
"We received a call yesterday asking for a sit down. They hinted that we were possibly going to have an open dialogue and maybe come to a compromise. Five minutes into the conversation they essentially turned the tables on us and asked us if we have something to present to them," he said.
The union president went on to express doubt on a quick resolution.
"With everything that the agency has communicated and done over the past week, I really don't know if they truly want to come to a compromise," Singh said.
The union said among its sticking points include wages, benefits and grievance procedures. ATU also claimed that the agency had failed to improve working conditions in the wake of 2021 mass shooting at the VTA rail yard, in which an employee killed nine co-workers before killing himself.
At around 9:15 a.m. Monday, San Jose police confirmed officers responded to a collision involving a vehicle and two pedestrians who were walking the picket line on the 3900 block of Zanker Road where the Cerone VTA Yard is located. The pedestrians were transported to an area hospital to be treated for minor injuries.
Police said the driver stayed at the scene and cooperated with investigators, but did not provide any details regarding the collision. The investigation into the collision is active and ongoing, they said.
Monday's strike is the first involving the agency since the 1960s, according to the union.
"VTA is not offering us a competitive wage," said VTA fare inspector Mark Nevill. "There's a lot of people struggling who can barely make rent and drivers who live in their cars because they can't afford a simple studio apartment in this county."
The agency says giving union drivers the 19.1% raise they want would cripple the system in other ways.
"The reality of a wage increase at this level, or anything close to it would mean service cuts throughout our system and the likely elimination of positions across VTA," said VTA spokesperson Greg Richardson.
Approximately 100,000 people who ride the VTA transit system every day were left without a way to get to work, school or appointments. One of them was event planner Abriea Buster.
"Today I'm in Morgan Hill. I had to get a ride from one of my friends for an appointment at 10 o'clock in the morning because the VTA wasn't running from San Jose," explained Buster. "Now I have to wait until 2:30 for them to get off work so I can go home. So it's literally a whole day just to go to one doctor's appointment."
She still brought her Clipper Card just in case, but a quick check of her VTA app showed nothing was running.
Buster said she can't afford to drive because of the cost of cars, gas and insurance. A rideshare would also cost her too much. She thought about taking Caltrain back, but it would be a 30 minute walk to and from the station for her and her four-legged companion Bailey. So she decided to just wait for her friend to get off work to get back home.
"I had to get to my appointment. So the struggle is real," she said. "It's just really sad that we're the ones struggling with this."
The agency has said paratransit service will not be impacted.
