Union members representing bus drivers for Amtrak rallied in Bakersfield Friday, calling on the drivers’ employer to accept the union’s contract after two years of delayed negotiations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Members of the Transportation Communications Union\/International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers gathered signatures at the Bakersfield Amtrak station on Truxtun Avenue Friday, an effort to pressure a Los Angeles-based employer to accept the union’s contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“These drivers work for Alvand Transportation. They’ve agreed to join a union, which is their legal right over two years ago,” said Stephen Phillips, a Bakersfield-based TCU member.<\/p>\n
“Since then, the contract has been stalled out exclusively by the owner of the company.”<\/p>\n
Representatives for Alvand Transportation did not respond to request for comment Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They’ve refused to negotiate in good faith,” Phillips said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We’ve come to the table, we’ve brought them our proposals. Just about two months ago, they finally gave us a proposal which included zero back pay for over the two years that they’ve been missing and zero wage increases.”<\/p>\n
Phillips said drivers under the contract drive all over southern and central California, even as far as Las Vegas. About 10 of the drivers under the contract live in Bakersfield, Phillips said; the rest live around the state but they all drive routes that stop in Bakersfield.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“All of these drivers lay over here in Bakersfield. So this is a central point for them to all get together,” Phillips said. “As far as Amtrak, this is the fifth busiest station in the whole nation, believe it or not. We have 62 feeder buses that come here.”<\/p>\n
The rally featured only a few union members, who approached Amtrak riders transferring from trains to buses for signatures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Union members had some local support from Kern County District 5 Supervisor Leticia Perez, who said at the rally unionizing is a fundamental American right.<\/p>\n
“I see a group of Americans here today that have taken very seriously your rights to organize under the First Amendment. To do so with civility, to do so without violence,” Perez told the rally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“To take within your own hands the American institutions that have given us the opportunity for equality and decency and a dignified American life. That’s what you have done.”<\/p>\n
Speaking to The Californian, Perez said she joined the rally because she felt strongly about the workers having gone two years without a resolution and that it is important for leaders to take a stand on tough issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We do that as Americans locking arms to improve the condition of our communities, and to see that so disregarded, that disheartens me,” Perez said.\u00a0 “I’m out here with a heavy heart today. Because I know these people don’t make enough money.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Union members representing bus drivers for Amtrak rallied in Bakersfield Friday, calling on the drivers’ employer to accept…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-454151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}