Students and University employees who rely on the bus system to get to and from campus may soon be searching for other ways to get around Eugene if Lane Transit District representatives and the labor union representing 80 percent of LTD’s workers can’t come up with
a last-minute deal to divert a system-
wide strike.
The University has no plan for alternative transportation for the thousands of students who depend on the bus because of how intricate such a plan would have to be to include everyone who might be affected by a driver strike, Department of Public Safety Interim Director Tom Hicks said.
“There’s no way we can come close to offering any of the services that LTD does,” Hicks said.
Representatives from LTD say a strike could happen as soon as Jan. 25 because the union is required to give a 10-day notice about a strike and Jan. 15 is the final day of the negotiation’s ‘cooling-off period.’
According to LTD, nearly 3,000 University students and employees use the bus on a
daily basis.
That figure is from 2003, but LTD Service Planning and Marketing Manager Andy Vobora said judging by the steady increase in enrollment at the University, that figure is not expected to have decreased this year.
The service contract between LTD and the University specifies a budget of $583,250 in student fees to be used in order to provide students with “unlimited ridership on all routes and schedules.”
Student money will be refunded for the days when no bus service is available, but how that will be done has not been decided, Vobora said.
University efforts to mitigate problems that could arise from a strike has so far been focused on potential parking problems, Hicks said. The influx of vehicles on campus that could result from a lack of public transportation is an addressable problem, Hicks said, but the University has yet to decide on a set course of action.
Hicks sat down with Vobora, Department of Public Safety Parking and Transportation Manager Rand Stamm, ASUO President Adam Petkun, ASUO Community and Housing Coordinator Scott Lu and Human Resources
Employment Manager Chris Lonigan on Friday to discuss the possibility of a strike and to brainstorm ways to curb the negative effects a strike will have on the University community.
Petkun said the ASUO has concentrated on informing students who rely on the bus about the potential strike in order to give everyone time to think of alternative ways to get to and from campus, which Vobora said was one of the purposes of the meeting.
“We want people to be able to find options to get to class and school,” Vobora said.
There will be updated information on the negotiations between union representatives and LTD available on the ASUO Web site at asuo.uoregon.edu and car pool
sign-ups on LTD’s Web site at ltd.org.
Hicks said the University’s solution to the array of problems that could arise from a lack of bus service will “be a mix of things,” but the main focus will be on coming up with ways to accommodate the additional parking.
Using the Autzen Stadium parking lot may be an option, but Petkun pointed out at the Friday meeting that the lot could pose safety problems because of the length of the walk and the lack of lighting along the way.
Hicks said the University is looking for a way to provide a bus or car pool to the family housing areas, particularly Westmoreland, located about three miles west of campus.
None of these options have been formally set up, and Hicks said it is still not known whether any sort of
alternative transportation is possible.
“I don’t know if any of these options are going to be viable,” Hicks said. “I just don’t think there’s anything really that’s in place.”
Vobora said the only way to avoid massive transportation problems for the community is to avoid a driver strike by mitigating the negotiation process. LTD cannot operate if its drivers strike, Vobora said, and the consequences of a strike are nearly impossible to prevent.
“There isn’t a silver bullet out there that’s going to solve all these problems,” Vobora said. “The best thing we can offer in the community is encourage people to plan ahead and look at carpooling.”
Negotiations between LTD and the Amalgamated Transit Union, the union representing the workers, have been going on since May 2004. ATU has accused LTD of slashing employee benefits while unnecessarily increasing funding to other areas of LTD.
Carol Allred, ATU executive board officer at LTD, said everyone involved in the negotiation process understands how problematic a bus strike will be for the community but said the long range consequences of accepting an offer from LTD that is not up to the union’s standards could be even more devastating to the community.
“We set a standard for community work,” Allred said, adding that accepting LTD’s current offer would be taking a step backward in the way of workers’ rights.
“If we start going backwards, that’s going to drag the rest of the people who work in this community right along backwards with us,” Allred said.
Allred said LTD has a large surplus but is still making cuts to services and raising fares, stressing that the medical plan offered in the new contract is of lesser benefit than the previous plan.
Vobora said he feels the public has “been a little misled” by some of the media coverage and newspaper ads paid for by the ATU.
He said LTD has presented the best contract it can and the medical plan offered is necessary “so that we’re not experiencing such high premium rates.” LTD is working to balance the need for good employee wages and benefits with the need to maintain quality services well into the future, Vobora said.
Vobora said LTD will post information about the contract and the benefits it offers on the its Web site.
“People can go take a look at that, and they can make a judgment about whether we’re being fair in this current economy,” Vobora said.
No meetings are currently scheduled between ATU and LTD, but both sides say they are hopeful a strike can be avoided, and if one does happen it can be as short as possible.
“It’s our desire to resolve the issues as quickly as possible and get buses back on the street,” Vobora said.

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