{"id":393254,"date":"2026-07-31T09:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T09:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/393254\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T09:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T09:23:12","slug":"95-likely-capmetro-workers-inch-closer-to-strike-union-president-says-the-daily-texan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/393254\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201895% likely\u2019: CapMetro workers inch closer to strike, union president says \u2013 The Daily Texan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"7-29-26_CapMetroConference_EllisJarvis_04\"
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<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA CapMetro employee holds a sign at a press conference to discuss contract revisions ahead of the board meeting on July 27.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Capital Metro union workers are close to initiating a strike over contract negotiations following a press conference and CapMetro\u2019s board meeting on Monday.<\/p>\n

Workers gathered outside for a press conference before the meeting and pushed the board for renewed negotiations. Brent Payne, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091 that represents CapMetro employees, said a strike is currently about \u201c95% likely,\u201d citing unwillingness from subcontractor Keolis North America to negotiate further.<\/p>\n

While there is currently no date to strike, the union voted to authorize one if necessary<\/a> after rejecting Keolis\u2019 final offer in June. Payne said a strike would mean \u201cno buses,\u201d and would continue for as long as it takes Keolis to return to the table for negotiations on a better contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The union still has 11 open items that need to be resolved in negotiations to avoid a strike, Payne said, including wages and benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the press conference, Payne highlighted how the strike would particularly impact the University and Austin Independent School District, such as impeding students from traveling around the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is never ATU\u2019s goal to hurt (or) harm anybody,\u201d Payne said. \u201cI just want to make you guys aware that this is serious, and y\u2019all need to understand what we\u2019re potentially looking at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dozens of speakers voiced support for the union at the board meeting and called on CapMetro\u2019s board of directors to pressure Keolis to return to the table and meet workers\u2019 demands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CapMetro declined a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Mallory Vinson, a second grade teacher and CapMetro commuter, was among the concerned citizens who spoke in support of ATU.<\/p>\n

\u201cA strike would be very disruptive to the daily lives of Austinites,\u201d Vinson said. \u201cI, and many others, are fully behind the workers and their union striking because they wouldn\u2019t just be fighting for improvements for their own conditions, which they very much deserve, but for the public as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several CapMetro union workers also spoke at the meeting to outline personal grievances with their treatment under Keolis and again demand better pay and benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis current state of affairs is unacceptable,\u201d said Peyton Rollins, a bus operator who attended the meeting virtually. \u201cSo if you thought you could hide up in this boardroom, where nobody ever comes, well guess what? We\u2019re here now. We\u2019re gonna be here next month, and we\u2019re gonna be here until you get your act together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A CapMetro employee holds a sign at a press conference to discuss contract revisions ahead of the board…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-393254","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\/393254","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=393254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}