Transit drivers want raise to combat shortage
Dec. 25—When St. Joseph Transit expanded routes in August, the move put stress on its drivers, leading to a shortage and a request for salary increases.
St. Joseph Transit's rebrand earlier this year included new routes that cut travel time in half, from one hour to 30 minutes. But the change forced drivers to put in a total of 191 hours of overtime — 100 hours more than the previous week.
"With the shortage, it's resulted in quite a bit of overtime for our existing drivers," said Michelle Schultz, the St. Joseph Transit general manager. "We have just recently started a campaign trying to recruit more drivers."
The shortage of drivers only made the situation worse, forcing the city to cut four routes in November.
"You have people that rely on it to get to work," said Gene Ritchheart, the president of the local transit drivers union. "Without those (routes), it's prolonged the time they have to spend on the bus. It's forced them to actually have to catch the bus earlier to make sure that they're on time."
St. Joseph Transit currently has 33 drivers. It needs at least 40 to operate the new routes as planned. As drivers have dwindled, overtime has skyrocketed. Since the changes in August, drivers have logged an average overtime total of 148 hours per week, with drivers reaching a pinnacle during a week in November with 254 OT hours.
Steve Gilmore, the vice president of the local transit drivers union, is concerned the extra work is a safety hazard.
"Your reaction times are slower," he said. "You're just kind of going through the motions, not as alert."
Right now, transit drivers make $19.34 an hour, which pales in comparison to cities of similar size. For example, Waterloo, Iowa, which has a population of 66,000 and 10 bus routes, pays its drivers about $25 an hour.
"We're just trying to get the city and St. Joseph Transit to raise the wages and the benefits up to a point that they can hire more people because we're tired of working 50 and 60 hours a week," Ritchheart said.
To combat the shortage and limit overtime hours, the union representing the transit drivers is asking for salary increases. The city gave the union its final offer of 6% increases for three years, but the union declined. Instead, the union is asking for a 16% wage increase in the first year and 8% increases for the following two years. Drivers also want a higher pension.
"We have given a last offer," Schultz said. "Right now it's kind of in their court to see what they want to do from this point on."
The union believes the city has the money for the salary bumps. The budgeted fiscal year 2023 transit fund balance was about $30.5 million and is expected to increase next year. The union wants the city to use this money for wages.
"It's not that they don't have the money, they just don't want to spend the money to retain drivers," Gilmore said.
But Schultz likened the fund to a savings account — money that should only be used when absolutely necessary.
"That money is there for the future," Schultz said. "A lot of our funding comes from taxes. It could come to a point when our tax income does not meet our yearly expenses and we have to dip into that fund."
Schultz said a salary increase would help "a little bit" to recruit drivers. But Ritchheart made the situation sound dire. He said if a change isn't made soon, the entire transit system could be in jeopardy.
"If you don't get your foot in the door first, you're going to be losing," Ritchheart said. "This overtime is going to continue and you're going to lose drivers more steadily. At some point in time, you may not even have a transit system."
Quinn Ritzdorf can be reached at quinn.ritzdorf@newspressnow.com
