voted<\/a> 160-1 two weeks ago to authorize a strike after months of contract negotiations. Union leaders said members have raised concerns about wages, healthcare costs, workplace treatment, and bargaining practices.<\/p>\n\u201cThe membership had spoken and they\u2019re tired of being disrespected, treated unfairly and they want their voice to be heard,\u201d Bernard Wade, vice president of the union representing paratransit employees, told KERA.<\/p>\n
Wade said workers do not want to disrupt transportation services relied upon by seniors and people with disabilities.<\/p>\n
Union leaders also criticized Transdev\u2019s contract proposals.<\/p>\n
\u201cTransdev continues to present insulting proposals that leave workers choosing between healthcare and survival,\u201d ATU International Vice President Ken Day said in a statement sent to The Dallas Express ahead of a planned June 16 appearance before the DART Board of Directors.<\/p>\n
Workers contend that healthcare costs under the company\u2019s proposal would remain unaffordable for many employees and that wage increases do not meet standards outlined in the DART contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur members are devoted to this work and to their riders, who depend on them. However, under this last offer they still can\u2019t afford to live in the Dallas area they serve,\u201d ATU International President John Costa said in a statement sent to DX. \u201cThey refuse to be treated with disrespect by a corporation that cares more about the bottom line than their employees and their riders. We don\u2019t want to strike but will do what is necessary to get the fair contract these workers deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
DART Continues Preparations<\/p>\n
DART emphasized that the strike authorization applies only to Transdev employees and not to DART personnel.<\/p>\n
The agency said customers should plan ahead and allow additional travel time if a strike occurs. For trip information or questions regarding paratransit service, customers can contact DART Paratransit at 214-515-7272.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DART Paratransit vehicle | Image by Dallas College\/website; Yellow background, Image by Canva Dallas Area Rapid Transit is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[120940,120943,120939,102,18672,104,103,18676,2261,120942,120944,120941,5369,120938],"class_list":["post-339350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-amalgamated-transit-union","tag-atu","tag-atu-local-1338","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-area-rapid-transit","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-dallas-transit","tag-dart","tag-golink","tag-labor-dispute","tag-paratransit","tag-public-transportation","tag-transdev"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}