Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) bus riders may have gone to bed thinking they would wake up to a county wide bus strike, but service is expected to operate as usual Monday as contract talks continue between OCTA and Teamsters Local 952.
Negotiations during the evening of Oct. 16 had failed at one point with OCTA posting a notice on its website notifying riders of a strike that was to begin at 12:01 Oct. 17. However, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s team stepped in and requested both parties return to the table to try to find a resolution.
"OC Bus is a critical public service for tens of thousands of Orange County residents and stopping service would unnecessarily harm those who rely upon us including students, seniors and workers who have no other means to travel," said OCTA Chairman Mark A. Murphy, also the Mayor of Orange. "For all of our riders, I'm very happy that service will continue."
OCTA reports approximately 85 percent of its riders use the OC Bus service as their primary means of transportation. While the authority’s ridership remains down compared to pre-COVID levels, information on the American Public Transportation Association’s ridership trends dashboard shows OCTA ridership has returned to approximately 70 percent of its pre-COVID levels.
Teamsters Local 952, which represents 150 mechanics, machinists and service workers employed by OCTA, are negotiating for improvements in health and welfare issues. Specifically, the union says there is “substantial disparity between the maintenance workers’ monthly health care costs and their wages.”
The existing contract expired Sept. 30. OCTA and the union met 25 times during the summer to negotiate a new contract. The result of these negotiations was a final offer the union called “sub-standard,” and members voted to strike.
In a statement following a vote to authorize a strike earlier this month, Eric Jimenez, Local 952 Secretary-Treasurer, said the authority needed to “address wages, health care costs, the lack of pension increases for well over a decade and some key non-economic issues.”
