With operator change looming, Austin transit union ratifies contract to run through 2025
The union for Capital Metro’s operators and mechanics approved a new labor contract this week.
Members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091 — which represents more than 1,200 employees that keep the Austin-area transit system running — voted Wednesday to ratify the union’s contract between the operators and the current provider, MV Transportation.
Brent Payne, president of ATU Local 1091, said the new contract includes improved medical insurance coverage, a higher 401k match and increased uniform allowance for members. The contract also includes additional “pre-trip” time for bus drivers. Under the new contract, drivers will have 20 minutes — up from 15 minutes — to prepare their bus for their shift.
“It may not seem like a lot to the public, but five extra minutes to pre-trip your bus makes a difference,” Payne told the American-Statesman. About 96% of members that cast a ballot voted in favor of the contract, he added.
The new contract will run through 2025. That is despite CapMetro’s plans to switch providers from MV Transportation to the North American subsidiary of Keolis, a Paris-based public transportation provider, at the end of the year.
Of the three companies that submitted bids to CapMetro, Keolis ranked the highest on CapMetro's scoring matrix and listed the lowest cost: $752.6 million over five years. CapMetro officials praised Keolis for the company's experience with electric bus fleets, starting new bus rapid transit systems and employing a dedicated labor relations team.
Leadership for Keolis, both preceding and after the final vote by CapMetro’s board of directors to select the company, has committed to honoring the new contract approved by the union and MV Transportation. Payne said the parties are working to create and sign a memorandum of understanding — essentially a document putting the agreement in writing and outlining how they will proceed — to enshrine Keolis' commitment.
Members of the union, including local members and members of its national leadership, initially raised concerns about Keolis during the months-long bidding process by CapMetro to select a service provider. During the bidding process, a national director for ATU addressed a letter to CapMetro stating in part that Keolis had a "history of hostile anti-union conduct."
Anthony Walker, a bus operator of 32 years, said he was hopeful for good working relations between the union, CapMetro and Keolis. Having synergy between all the parties, he said, is critical to providing the public with a reliable service.
“The public deserves first-class service,” Walker told the Statesman. “We want to work with (Keolis) because we need to to serve the public.”
Other members, including Brenda Moore-Jackson, the union's elected recording secretary, are unsure how negotiations for the next contract with Keolis could go. She worries, she said, whether reports of other ATU membership strikes against Keolis across the country forecast how the negotiations in Austin will go.
"I think that is when we'll know how this relationship will work," Moore-Jackson told the Statesman.
The previous union contract between MV Transportation and the union expired at the end of 2022. Union members said negotiations for the new contract were eased because the union worked with CapMetro — rather than the provider — to set wage floors for operators.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: ATU Local 1091 in Austin passes union contract with CapMetro provider
