Amid contract negotiations with transportation management company Keolis North America, almost all members of Capital Metro\u2019s union voted to authorize a strike if deemed necessary, according to a news release from Amalgamated Transit Union.<\/p>\n
CapMetro workers rejected the final offer from Keolis on June 30, and 99.5% of those represented by ATU Local 1091, the union\u2019s local branch, voted in favor of the strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis vote sends a powerful message that our members are unified and strong,\u201d Local 1091 President Brent Payne said in the news release. \u201cWe\u2019re sick and tired of being sick and tired, and we\u2019re taking a stand now against the company\u2019s disrespect.\u201d<\/p>\n
CapMetro began its contract with Keolis in January 2024. According to the news release from ATU, Keolis was supposed to have a regular wage increase at the beginning of this year, but did not.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have continued to engage in good-faith bargaining and remain committed to maintaining a collaborative and respectful relationship,\u201d Keolis wrote in a statement. \u201cWe are working with our union partners to schedule dates in early July to continue negotiations in an effort to reach an agreement that is in the best interest of our employees, the union, and our company.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the news release, ATU International President John Costa said Keolis needs to make a serious offer for transit workers in a city growing as much as Austin. In addition, more than 75% of CapMetro employees cannot currently afford the cost of living in Austin, according to the release.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we don\u2019t want this strike to happen for the sake of our riders and the community, Keolis is responsible for this with their bullying and regressive bargaining tactics,\u201d Costa said in the news release.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Workers recently refused overtime in a \u201cperiod of rest\u201d to protest for an updated and fair contract, according to the ATU news release.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe men and women who operate and maintain CapMetro are essential to our system, and we value and rely on their contributions every day as part of the CapMetro team,\u201d CapMetro wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid contract negotiations with transportation management company Keolis North America, almost all members of Capital Metro\u2019s union voted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-376848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376848","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=376848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}