LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Friday, the day that striking Lake Transit workers had intended to return to the job, curtailed bus services remained in place as the transit operator said it was taking its legally afforded time to process the return of workers.
At the same time, both Teamsters Local 665 and Paratransit Services have indicated their willingness to return to negotiations in order to arrive at a new contract.
Teamsters Local 665, which represents 28 striking Lake Transit workers, accused Paratransit Services, the operator of Lake Transit, of locking out employees after they were not allowed to return to work on Friday.
However, Paratransit Services officials said they were using the five days to process the workers’ return to work that is afforded to employers by the National Labor Relations Act,
“The reason for this is to insure that all administrative matters are handled in a legally appropriate manner and the rights of all parties are protected in the process,” Paratransit Services said in a Friday statement.
The Washington-based nonprofit said it has several “special cases” involving striking employees that they need to make sure are handled appropriately.
Paratransit Services said it is retaining the replacement workers it has hired since the strike started. The striking workers will be allowed to come back when they’re called from a preferential recall list to fill open positions, a process that Paratransit Services said is typically done based on seniority.
Despite the continuing tensions, the two sides appear ready to head back to the negotiating table.
Local 665 President Ralph Miranda said he sent a letter to the federal mediator overseeing negotiations to ask that Paratransit Services meet them for negotiations.
On Friday, Paratransit Services said it also had requested that negotiations resume next week and were awaiting a response.
Also on Friday, Assemblymember Yamada traveled to Lower Lake to visit with the striking workers and with Paratransit Services officials.
This week, Yamada and state Sen. Noreen Evans had sent the union and Lake Transit a letter encouraging the two sides to sit down for binding arbitration.
Paratransit Services representatives gave Yamada their own update on the status of negotiations and discussed the service restoration.
They reported that Yamada informed them that she didn't want to involve herself in local matters and realized they had a federally assigned mediator to assist in negotiations.
The strike began on Monday, July 29, less than a month after a two-day strike union members held to protest continuing disagreements over wages.
The union had agreed to give up step increases in 2010 during negotiations for the contract still in place, but argue that they had done so with the understanding that the step increases would be restored once the economy improved.
On Thursday Teamsters members voted to return to work immediately and unconditionally in an effort to restore full transit services to the community members that rely on them.
That followed a Wednesday Lake Transit Authority Board meeting in which the union called on the board to support binding arbitration and appoint a fact-finding group to help bring the strike to an end.
The board declined to take action, saying the contract between Lake Transit and Paratransit Services prohibits the authority from interfering with the employer-employee contractor.
The union, which has consistently asserted that Paratransit Services can’t restore services through the beginning of September as it says it is on track to do, said its members chose to return to work “for the benefit of those who have been left stranded by the ineptness of Paratransit.”
During the strike, Local 665 called on Lake Transit to enforce performance of its contract, but at the Wednesday transit board meeting, Lake Transit General Manager Mark Wall said the contract’s language allowed for the contractor to be fined only $200 per month if it failed to meet performance standards.
Paratransit Services said Friday that it intends to move forward with restoring the majority of services by next Thursday, Aug. 22. Revised scheduled will be issued this next Monday.
Meanwhile, Teamsters Local 665 Secretary-Treasurer Mark Gleason said Friday that union leadership and members plan to head to Sacramento to seek a review and hearing concerning the conduct of Lake Transit and Paratransit Services.
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