GRTC Union Members Fail to Ratify New Contract
Union members have failed to ratify a new contract with the Greater Richmond Transit System, and GRTC officials say, they are prepared to deal with a strike if it comes to that.
It would be the first strike in 34 years. Union members voted down the contract their leaders had recommended…which promised to spare jobs and benefits, but offered no raises.
Clary: We reached a tentative agreement with the union leadership and for the membership to vote that down, we are just very, very puzzled.
GRTC’s Kathy Shaw Clary. But the President of Local 1220 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said their lowest paid workers could not live on $11 an hour.
Coker: Well, I understand the economy’s bad.
Deloris Coker
Coker: The $11 an hour, single mothers with dependents cannot really function basing it on that income.
Both sides say they will meet again with a federal mediator. GRTC says it has contingency plans should there be a strike, to take care of the 40,000 bus rides logged daily on the system.
Charles Fishburne, WCVE news.
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