Teamsters Unfair To Newer Bus Drivers

Steve Greenhut blogged this excellent post on Orange Punch a short time ago:

Forty percent of OCTA's Teamsters bus drivers need to be wondering why they are out on the picket lines, given that the union is insisting that ALL the pay increases go only to senior drivers. The union's 60 percent of drivers who have been on the job for more than five years already get the best routes and the best hours. They want OCTA to give them even more pay and benefits, and these union leaders are perfectly happy that the younger drivers get nada.

You can read the rest of Steve's post here.

Meanwhile, the thousands of OC residents pay the price for Teamster President Patrick Kelly's intransigence -- and their misfortune in being dependent on the government's transit monopoly. Small businesses lose bus-dependent customers, bus-dependent workers either can't get to work or pay high prices for taxi (licensed and unlicensed).

This scarcity of transit options is a government-created shortage -- the result of a regulatory regime that makes it difficult for entrepreneurs to create a genuine transit marketplace in which people who don't own cars are hosed if the government transit monopoly shuts down.

If such a transit market existed, the OCTA bus drivers union would be much less likely to call a strike because bus riders would have alternatives and a strike wouldn't be nearly as destructive -- and it's that pain the union is counting to force the OCTA Board of Directors to capitulate.

For now, the OCTA Board needs to stand fast and bring the Teamsters to heel. In the long run, this episode illustrates the importance of allowing the free market in transit to develop.

Comments

[MrWhipple]

God speed the day when monopolistic union thuggery is left on the ashpile of history, much like its distant cousin, communism.

I have nothing against employee organizing and collective bargaining, but this sort of idiocy is unfair to the taxpayers, unfair to the working poor, unfair to the newer bus drivers -- unfair to everyone except the union leaders who get paid no matter what the outcome is.

Makes me glad I moved to a right-to-work state last month.

[Karl Rove]

Does anybody know if OCTA is precluded from contracting in a private bus service to take over these routes while the strike goes on?

I would think that since the ACCESS system is privately contracted. that the main OCTA system can be as well.

Although private services are few and far between, there may be enough capacity out there to at least get some additional routes back in operation.

[Wear the Label]

Mr. Whipple, Please stay and don't come back. As far as this labor dispute, the OCTA Board of Directors is no doubt like the Orange County Board of Supervisors afraid to put John Moorlach in his place. He believes he is the annointed Republican prophet and God help the Republican(s) that doesn't/don't follow his "it's time to give the union's a black eye" philosophy. Instead of having the moral courage to put Moorlach in his place they sit idly by while the quality of life in Orange County becomes increasingly worse. Jubal, you know for a fact that almost every Republican elected official can't stand Moorlach and that their silence regarding his grasp and understanding of policy issues will hurt Orange County for years to come. The OCTA is financially flush with local, state and regional monies and could accomplish both sticking points of new pay and senior pay. Shame on you Republicans for letting this happen.

[Karl Rove]

What do the Republicans have to do with a union position that precludes a pay raise for the lower echelon drivers? What does Moorlach have to do with that?

This looks more like senior union membership greed than anything else.

[killerjoe]

I support the bus drivers strike. I think they should hold out for $75. an hour minimum. A new gym and olympic size swim pool, for employees only. Special schools for children of bus drivers. No talking to,touching drivers, inclosers on all buses. Don't give up drivers. Stay strong brothers and sisters. You all gotta keep making money for your union reps. The heck with the people that depend on the OCTA buses everyday. Don't let them get in the way of your right to a much,much, better life.

[Jubal]

Wear the Label:

If you can't make your points without name-calling, you won't be allowed to comment here. First and last warning.

[Chris Prevatt]

OCTA Board needs to stand fast and bring the Teamsters to heel? Who the heck do you think you are? The men and women of Teamsters Local 952 are not dogs that should be brought to heel. They are dedicated and hard working people who work full shifts without the benefit of a lunch break or rest break. They are public servants providing a valuable public service. Matt, how dare you compare them to dogs. I have a full response over at TheLiberalOC.com.

[Jubal]

Chill out, Samuel Gompers. It's a commonly used figure of speech. Nobody using it is explicitly making a comparison to dogs.

[killerjoe]

Thanks for fixing that for me. Sorry, I get over passioned sometimes.

[MrWhipple]

Chris Prevatt writes:

The men and women of Teamsters Local 952...are dedicated and hard working people who work full shifts without the benefit of a lunch break or rest break. They are public servants providing a valuable public service.

This "public servants" shtick is ridiculous. Public servants don't leave thousands of the working poor stranded just so they can demand a little more slop for their trough.

Oh, excuse me: Just so the long-term "public servants" can demand a little more slop for their trough. The short-termers have to eat at the trough with less slop in it.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

[MrWhipple]

Wear the Label writes:

Mr. Whipple, Please stay and don't come back.

Doesn't this comment fairly rend the screen? To our union comrades, California is not for those who believe that unions are providing few benefits while causing great harm to individuals and the economy. Only die-hard true believers qualify live there.

As recent California expatriate, I feel much like a Tibetan exile, waiting for the day my homeland will be freed from the oppression under which my brothers who remain labor.

Free California!

[John]

Thanks for pointing out that only the senior drivers get the pay raise. Am I missing out something? Are these drivers paying the same due? Why don't 60% majority of the senior drivers cut down their pay raise so everyone have the same pay raise. I thought the Union suppose to represent everyone equally. Do the drivers have the option not to pay the Union? If they do, I suggest them stop paying the union. Let say you stop paying them $50 per month, that would be $600 per year which equal to 2.5% pay raise for you guys.

[sentinel]

I really thought you regular bloggers were supposed to be smart. The OCTA Board of directors has taken the typical John Moorlach approach. If OCTA has to spend money, lets spend it on the front end so there is a steady stream of interested new workers with no experience. As soon as the workers get a few years under their belt, they will either jump ship to a higher paying transit authority or come to realize that there just is no career opportunity in public transit.

The union, on the other hand, appears to be the only people thinking ahead. Orange County is supposed to be about quality, and if you want professional transit workers, you may want to offer them a package that rewards those who work hard at their job for a long time, i.e. the career drivers.

John Moorlach wants nothing more than to have no responsibility to the career county employee. Any county employee for that matter. The only incentive he offers is for the employee to leave and not retire as a county worker. The sooner the better. No retirement, no retiree medical obligation. That's John in a nutshell. No value.

[MrWhipple]

sentinel writes:

The union, on the other hand, appears to be the only people thinking ahead. Orange County is supposed to be about quality, and if you want professional transit workers, you may want to offer them a package that rewards those who work hard at their job for a long time, i.e. the career drivers.

Hey, here's a novel idea: Why not give the most pay to the drivers whose performance behind the wheel is the best? That way drivers who have the fewest accidents and who are actually courteous to passengers get more money, while the surly, lead-footed ones get less.

You see, that's the way it is in the REAL WORLD: Your performance is measured against individual job expectations.

But in the ever-shrinking fantasy world of the unions, everyone has a safe job and gets paid the same, regardless of performance. Great for the drivers; bad for the passengers and taxpayers who pay their salaries.

Just another reason why anyone with a little money in OC prefers to drive a car.