Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 24, 1992 TAG: 9203240187
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Joel Turner
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Stephen Mancuso said Monday he has talked briefly with union leaders and expects to schedule a meeting soon to discuss the union's concerns.
The drivers have rejected the contract because they are not satisfied with the health-care benefits offered by the company.
The current contract expires on April 1. If no agreement is reached by then, Mancuso said both sides have agreed to extend the contract on a day-by-day basis until an agreement is reached on a new contract.
Tommy Mullins, international vice president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said he is optimistic the negotiators can reach an agreement. At this point, the union is not raising the possibility of a strike, he said.
About 4,500 people ride Valley Metro buses daily. The last strike occurred in 1975 when there was a five-week walkout.
Mullins said the union members want some protection against the rapid increases in hospitalization insurance preminiums. Coverage for a family costs $385 a month and the union members have to pay $220 of that.
Richard Carter, president of Local 1493 of the transit union, said health-care benefits are a bigger issue than pay in the negotiations.
The drivers received no increase in pay or benefits last year when the union agreed to a one-year extension of an earlier three-year contract. Because city workers' pay was frozen in the recession, union members agreed to keep working without a raise.
The city owns the bus company and uses tax money to subsidize it, but the drivers and mechanics are not city employees. A private management firm runs the company under a contract with the city. State law prohibits city workers from striking, but the prohibition does not apply to the bus drivers.
by CNB