RTD talks on track, but sides gird for strike

Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Contract talks between the Regional Transportation District and the union representing its 1,740 drivers, mechanics and other workers are making good progress with a deadline looming in two weeks.

But progress doesn't stop both sides from taking steps for the unlikely event of a transit strike.

RTD and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001 are meeting three days this week, every day next week and the last two days leading up to expiration of the current three-year pact on Feb. 28.

There have been no strike rumblings unlike three years ago when a strike was authorized but never called. The crisis ended more than a month after the old contract expired when a new one with a three-year wage freeze was approved.

RTD spokesman Scott Reed said progress in the talks, which began this month, has been good. Union representatives agreed the talks are going smoothly.

Still, Local 1001 went through the formality of filing a notice of intent to strike with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, as required by law, on Jan. 20. At the same time it asked the department to deny permission.

That's a tactic aimed at forcing arbitration, an approach the union wants. It put RTD in the position of arguing that the state should grant its union permission to strike, in order to avoid forced arbitration.

On Tuesday, both sides met in a conference call with the department for a status report, said Rick Grice, executive director of the department. In light of the positive negotiations, RTD and the local agreed to ask the state to hold off on making a decision on the strike permission.

"It's my understanding they have agreed to continue talking, and that's exactly what we want them to do," Grice said. Three years ago, the state sided with RTD and granted strike permission.

Also on Tuesday, RTD's governing board reviewed plans to operate just under half its bus service, and no light rail service, if there were a strike.

It would use drivers from its three private contractors, which operate half the current bus service, mostly to run RTD's busiest routes.

An exception is the drivers for First Transit, which runs many RTD routes under contract. Those drivers also are unionized under ATU Local 1755 and are in the midst of contract talks with that company.

If RTD drivers strike, First Transit drivers wouldn't be asked to pick up those other routes. Instead, they would operate only the ones they currently drive. If First Transit drivers also went on strike, non-union drivers from Laidlaw and Connex, RTD's other two bus contractors, would handle about one-fourth of RTD's current bus service.

First Transit drivers have a vote scheduled Friday on their company's final offer.