As many as 100,000 commuters, students and shoppers are scrambling today to find alternatives to the sidelining of buses and light rail trains by a strike by 1,500 Valley Transportation Authority workers.

The strike began after midnight today, with no end in sight.

VTA provides primary transportation services for thousands of employers across Santa Clara County. The transit system’s contract with the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 ended at 12:01am March 10.

Representatives from both sides met today, but neither side had budged from bargaining positions for a new three-year contract that remained far apart, with no new conversations scheduled.

All bus and light rail routes were shut early today, but VTA published assurances that paratransit services would continue.

Picket were in place today at five strike locations:

• VTA Headquarters, 3331 N.First St., San Jose
• Light Rail Facility, 101 W. Younger Ave., San Jose
• North Yard, 1235 La Avenida St., Mountain View
• Chaboya Yard, 2240 S. 7th St., San Jose
• Cerone Yard, 3990 Zanker Rd., San Jose

Two picketers were reportedly injured when they were involved with a collision with a vehicle Monday morning authorities said. Both people were treated and the driver stayed at the scene and cooperated with investigators.

The strike was approved by more than 96% of the union members, said ATU Local 265.

“This is devastating news for the tens of thousands of riders who rely on our buses and light rail trains to get to schools, workplaces, medical appointments, and events,” the VTA in a statement this morning. “Alternatives to public transportation include carpooling, ridesharing, regional rail, walking, and biking.”

“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 transit system said, without providing specifics.

VTA said the union leadership has not adjusted their wage demands of 6% increases each year over three years, totalling 18%.

VTA offered three years of annual wage increases of 4%, 3% and 2% for a total of 9%.

VTA said its wage offer would keep VTA operators as the second-highest paid in the Bay Area and as the fifth-highest paid in the nation.

“VTA is extremely disappointed that ATU is leaving the communities of Silicon Valley stranded without much-needed bus and light rail service,” said Greg Richardson, VTA deputy general manager in a one-minute video posted after 11pm Sunday.

He told customers that “Even reaching the 3% that we are offering is going to be a fiscal challenge for us, but it’s one that we’re committed to doing. If we go with the 6% number over three years, it’s going to require us to cut service.”

“The approach we've seen so far from ATU is, ‘This is our demand, meet it or we strike,’ “Richardson said. “There’s not been any direction from their side to at least recognize that something has to change from their request, and until they are able to do that, there is nothing more that we can do.”

The president and business agent of ATU Local 265, Rajvinder Singh, said in a Feb. 28 statement that VTA leaders “have no real interest in reaching a fair compromise anytime soon.”

Singh said the transit system’s 3% offer includes an increase in dental insurance, changes in holiday pay, policy changes to terminate employees after being absent after one year with a disability or an industrial injury plus a demand that the system have the sole power to decide whether an employee grievance should go to arbitration.

The union said the VTA working environment still suffers from the trauma of a May 2021 mass shooting at the VTA rail yard that left nine workers and the shooter, an employee, dead.

“The agency has also failed to improve workplace conditions following the tragic mass shooting in May 2021 that took the lives of Local 265 members,” the union said in a statement. “Despite countless attempts to resolve these matters, the VTA has refused to make meaningful offers.”

The strike in one of the nation’s biggest cities has drawn national attention.

“Fair wages, dignified working conditions, and respect for transit workers are the backbone of a just and reliable transit system for our riders,” said ATU International president John Costa. “In San Jose and beyond, our members represent the heart and soul of the community. This is about securing a future where every transit worker is valued, heard and treated with the dignity they deserve for the service they provide every single day.”

“VTA must come to the table with an offer worthy of our sacrifices,” Costa said in a statement today.

 

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