RTA union sets strike date in contract negotitins

The union that represents Greater Dayton RTA bus drivers announced Friday that it will stop driving buses at midnight Dec. 31 if their demands are not met in contract talks.

Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1385 President Glenn Salyer announced Jan. 1 as the group’s strike date for most services unless an agreement can be reached with RTA CEO Mark Donaghy.

“We hope that we don’t go on strike,” Salyer said. “We’re asking for the company to sit down and quit telling us that the proposal is the proposal, which we’ve been hearing for the last year and a half.”

Late Friday afternoon, the RTA released a statement that said, in part: “The RTA has received no official notice of a strike at this time, nor has the State Employment Relations Board. A 10-day notice is required through the State Employment Relations Board.”

Salyer said a written notice has been sent to SERB. That organization has not yet received it, according to a SERB attorney.

No meetings are scheduled between the two sides to discuss contract issues.

Donaghy put out a statement Friday on RTA's website to explain what he called "false statements."

Donaghy wrote: “RTA respects and appreciates its hard working employees. We want them to have a fair contract that addresses their needs as well as balancing the needs of the community in terms of service levels provided for the tax dollars they provide in order for RTA to serve them.”

Salyer said the ATU originally looked at a strike date around Thanksgiving, but pushed it back.

“The members said, ‘Look, the holiday season’s coming. We can’t do that,’ ” Salyer said. “And we’re not going to do that to our riders because a lot of them are our friends.”

Salyer has said negotiation obstacles include what he calls overpriced insurance costs, a lack of back pay for 2015 to match the 2 percent raises the rest of the organization got and working conditions.

Salyer said some drivers don’t get any planned restroom break and that restroom breaks are timed by management.

“That’s one of our biggest complaints — the unsafe conditions that we have to work under,” he said. “We have to drive 12 hours a day. That’s like driving to Atlanta, Ga., every day without a lunch break.”

“Without a break out from behind the wheel where you can stretch your legs. That’s the break we’re talking about.”

Salyer also took issue with Donaghy’s release that purported to list average RTA employee earnings in 2015 as $60,260, calling them, “a joke.”

The list included averages for linemen ($77,581), journeymen ($73,356) and specialists ($65,529), among others.

“He failed to tell the public that we had to work 238,000 hours of overtime that year,” Salyer said, noting that some people worked 70 hours per week to get those wages. “So, when I see somebody publish the numbers like that, that really gets me upset.

“Because what he didn’t say was, ‘These guys were going home, sleeping for five hours and coming back and getting back in that bus and doing another 15-hour day.’ “

Donaghy’s statement said that while a strike could mean a complete shutdown of regular scheduled service on RTA fixed routes, “RTA staff will provide Project Mobility service for critical medical appointments such as dialysis treatments.”

Salyer said an expert has told them that the $6,800 medical insurance deductible management has proposed is too high and that employees making $13 per hour can’t swing that.

Salyer also said 77 employees have left in eight months and only four of them were retirees.

“What I would like to see is the board members sit in these contract talks and see what we have to say about our working conditions and why we’re so adamant that we want our pay for 2015, not 2 percent starting today going forward,” Salyer said. “We want it for the years everybody else got it.”

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