This story has been updated March 24 to include VTA’s latest contract offer.

The Valley Transportation Authority boosted its offer of more pay and improved benefits, in hopes of ending the regional transit strike.

The VTA Board of Directors convened a special meeting to address the ongoing strike by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, which started March 10.

At a Sunday morning board meeting, the Board approved a proposed increase to the agency’s most recent proposal with authorization to go up to an 11% offer paying out at 4%, 4%, 3% over three years, “conditional upon agreeing to proposals that reduce absenteeism to guarantee reliability of service.”

The new number was 0.5% higher than the proposal voted on Saturday by union members.
Results of the union vote were still pending shortly before noon today.

Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 voted Saturday on a new contract proposal from the Valley Transportation Authority.

“Contract negotiations … have reached a critical juncture,” the VTA said in a statement.

The union today was silent on the vote, which if approved, could end the walkout that began March 10.

The transit agency said its negotiators had on Friday presented an enhanced wage proposal of 10.5% over three years, contingent on VTA Board approval. This a slight increase from the 9.5 increase that had been on the table when talks broke off a week ago.

“ Union leadership has publicly stressed throughout this process that their concern was NOT about money,” the VTA said in today’s statement. “VTA has gone above and beyond to accommodate union demands, including agreeing to the union's proposed arbitration language and significantly enhancing dental coverage at the union's request.”

“The current proposal is highly competitive and fair,” the agency said. “The agency’s commitment to its employees is undeniable.”

Prior to Saturday's vote, the union's leader released a statement to its members that warned that "the VTA is trying to bully their employees with this latest contract offer that has rolled back proposals on overtime and attendance. It's reprehensible."

Local 265 President and Business Agent Raj Singh criticized comments last week by VTA Assistant General Manager Greg Richardson "calling our union members uneducated."

"The nerve of Richardson," said Singh. "He and the VTA management need to get off their high horse. The VTA is the one holding the riders of this community hostage. They can get a deal done to end this strike."

Superior Court Judge Daniel T. Nishigaya on Monday rejected the VTA request for a temporary restraining order to send workers back to work while contracts continued. The judge scheduled a hearing for March 26 in his Santa Clara court of the Valley Transportation Authority’s request that he permanently end the strike by 1,500 members of the Amalgamated Transit Local 265.

The strike has halted all bus and light rail rides for 100,000 commuters daily since March 10. Paratransit services are continuing.

The VTA claims that the union is violating a “no strike” clause in its expired contract

Also Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom declined to intervene in the labor dispute. The VTA had asked Newsom to order a fact-finding investigation to bring striking VTA frontline workers back to work while contract negotiations continued.

Three decades of journalism experience, as a writer and editor with Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Lee newspapers, as a business journal editor and publisher and as a weekly newspaper editor in Scotts Valley and Gilroy; with the Weeklys group since 2017. Recipient of several first-place writing and editing awards, California News Publishers Association.