Bus-free streets and stations lined
with picketers marked the first day of a county-wide Lane Transit District driver strike Monday, as the Amalgamated Transit Union Division 757 protested LTD’s
handling of ongoing contract negotiations. This is the first driver strike in LTD history.
There’s no telling how long the strike
will last, but a mediation session has
been scheduled for Thursday at the Hilton Eugene Hotel.
Both ATU and LTD representatives said they have pushed as far as they can go and it is up to the other side to settle the 10-month dispute.
“We’ll be there to talk, but we are not in a position to stretch any further than where
we were in mediation (last Friday),” LTD
Service Planning and Marketing Manager Andy Vobora said.

Carol Allred, an LTD driver and executive board officer for ATU Division 757, said
the union is not looking to make any different contract offers than it has in the past and is
prepared to stay out on strike as long as it will take for LTD workers to get a fair contract.
“It would have been much easier to keep us in the door in the first place than to get us back in the door,” Allred said at a union rally
Monday night at the LTD downtown station.
Lane County Commissioner Peter Sorenson joined more than 100 union supporters at the rally, and said it is important for elected officials to get involved in issues like
the strike because they are representative of nationwide problems.
“Having a contract that is given to or forced on the worker, that’s something community leaders need to be concerned about,” Sorenson said, referring to LTD’s Feb. 1 implementation of a portion of the disputed contract.

Sorenson said such “unilateral implementation” is not respective of the definition of a
contract, which requires both parties to agree.
“Obviously, we don’t have agreement here,” Sorenson said.
After the rally, about 40 people walked to the SELCO 69th Annual Membership Meeting at the Hilton Eugene Hotel, where LTD General Manager Ken Hamm was rumored to be in
attendance seeking election to the credit union’s Board of Directors.
ATU Division 757 Vice President Jonathan Hunt said the intent behind going to
the meeting was to express the union’s
disapproval of Hamm’s handling of the
contract negotiations and to voice concerns about the possibility of him being elected to the SELCO board.
Hamm was not in attendance and did
not win the board position he was seeking. However, Hunt said the union’s presence was not a waste because Hamm will surely hear about the visit, and the importance of the
contract negotiations to the union members will be reiterated to him.
University senior Stacy Borke joined picketers at the LTD downtown station Monday
afternoon to show support for the union cause.
“Workers have rights that aren’t being
paid attention to,” Borke said, emphasizing the need for community members to get involved in labor issues. “People depend so much on LTD, but then when things like this happen they just turn their heads.”

Eugene citizen David Guisado picketed with other union members and supporters at the Lane County Fairgrounds on Monday afternoon.
Guisado said he has been
following the contract negotiations since October and feels the LTD
drivers are only asking for the
benefits they’ve always had.
Guisado said he will picket
with union members whenever
he has free time and encouraged others in the community to verse themselves on the issues behind the contract dispute.
“It could be months before
the buses come out if people don’t get involved,” Guisado said.

[email protected]