'Off on the wrong foot': CapMetro OKs company to head bus operations despite union concern

As of Jan. 1, all of Capital Metro's more than 1,200 bus operators and mechanics will be newly employed under a France-based public transit company. That is despite calls from Austin's public transit union to reject the multinational company's bid and retain the transportation authority's current Dallas-based provider.

CapMetro's board of directors on Monday unanimously approved a proposed contract with the North American subsidiary of Keolis, which is based in Paris. The vote, capping a six-month bidding process for one of the Austin-area transportation authority's largest services contracts to date, came after board members discussed the proposal with CapMetro's legal counsel in a closed session for a half-hour.

Of the three companies that bid for the job, Keolis was ranked the highest by CapMetro's scoring matrix and offered the lowest cost: $752.6 million over five years. Earlier this month, CapMetro officials praised Keolis for the company's experience with electric fleets, standing up new bus rapid transit systems and having a dedicated labor relations team.

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Leadership for the Amalgamated Transit Union — both local and national — called on CapMetro to reconsider signing any agreements with Keolis. Darrell Sorrells, vice president of ATU Local 1091 in Austin, said Keolis had started off "on the wrong foot" with the public transit union in the preliminary meetings between union leadership and the company.

ATU Local 1091 is close to finalizing a contract that would run until December 2025 with MV Transportation. Sorrells said local operators fear Keolis, which he said has a history of anti-union practices.

In June, while CapMetro's bid process was underway, John Lyons, ATU's director of joining industry councils and collective bargaining, sent a letter to CapMetro CEO Dottie Watkins asking for the Austin-area transportation authority to consider Keolis' labor record. In a letter obtained by the Statesman, Lyons wrote, "Keolis has a history of hostile anti-union conduct which we believe distracts from public agencies' mission to provide their communities with safe, reliable and accessible transit service."

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Earlier this year, transit workers employed by Keolis went on strike in Loudon County and Woodbridge, Va., citing slowed negotiations over wages. In Reno, Nev., Keolis workers went on strike three times in 2021, with COVID-19 safety being a top concern for operators, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

David Scorey, CEO of Keolis' operations in North America, spoke during the Monday meeting and said Keolis is committed to working with the union. He declined to speak with the Statesman after the vote, saying he would after Keolis' contract with CapMetro was finalized sometime before the end of the year.

CapMetro's current provider, MV Transportation, submitted a bid but was ultimately not selected. CapMetro has contracted with the Dallas-based company since 2012 after Texas passed laws that led to the transportation authority dissolving its in-house service provider. Those services were expanded in 2019, right before ridership for public transit systems across the country was slashed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It is unfortunate when an American-owned, minority-started, Texas-based company loses a contract to a company out of France," Gary Coles, MV Transporation's chief customer success officer, told the American-Statesman after the vote.

MV Transporation's contract will expire Dec. 31. CapMetro is committed to a $532 million price tag for its service, according to the agency's open contract portal. The contract has been modified more than 30 times since 2019, when CapMetro's board of directors approved a $1.4 billion deal with a base period of five years and two optional three-year terms.

Watkins told the Statesman that MV Transportation had been performing "fairly well" and that the transportation authority's move to Keolis was a result of Keolis ranking the highest in the bidding process. The more than 30 contract modifications were largely a result of CapMetro changing how it pays for the services, including the implementation of a wage floor set by CapMetro — an approach officials said was novel and could ease negotiations between Keolis and ATU Local 1091.

Before the end of the year, all of CapMetro's system operators will begin their transition to working for Keolis, which comes right as open enrollment starts next month.

"So getting approval in September really helps us make sure that happens on a normal schedule and doesn't have to happen as a rush at the very last minute," Watkins said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: CapMetro selects new company to oversee its bus operations. Here's why