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Post by tonyw79sfv on Jul 6, 2007 22:17:35 GMT -8
I'm not from Orange County but I used to ride the OCTA. For those that depend on their service, there is an impending bus strike at midnight of 07-07-07 which will cut or severely limit service. This will affect about 200,000 OCTA patrons (which by comparison is fewer people than those that use LA Metro Rail itself). For those that take Metrolink OC and use the StationLink service, those OCTA 400 series buses will run as usual according to this Metrolink news release here: www.metrolinktrains.com/documents/news_updates/PossibleOCTAReducedBusService070207.doc
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Post by bluelineshawn on Jul 6, 2007 22:25:46 GMT -8
We'll know in just a few minutes if there will be a strike. I'm guessing there will be or we would have heard by know.
The 400 series buses are operated by Veolia and not OCTA drivers. Their routes at least partly duplicate existing OCTA routes. I wonder if they will give them full size buses and press them into more service if there is a strike?
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Post by tonyw79sfv on Jul 7, 2007 0:27:29 GMT -8
OCTA updated their website www.octa.net and the strike is on. It looks as if the most busiest route, 43 Harbor Boulevard, is running 6am to 6pm weekdays only. Pretty much all of the other lines except ACCESS paratransit, 400 series StationLinks, and express buses are shut down.
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Post by bluelineshawn on Jul 7, 2007 12:37:09 GMT -8
Only the routes operated by Veolia Transportation are running.
I can't believe this strike is about a 1% increase spread over 3 years.
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Post by nickv on Jul 7, 2007 17:09:36 GMT -8
Man!!!! Somebody please tell us OC's economy won't suffer and traffic won't come to a complete stop in OC streets because of a 1% payrate dispute... Public employee strikes are something that should be addressed to the legislature or placed on the ballot. Many transit strikes, per the press, in the past have threatened local businesses and the local economy! I think California needs a well written "Taylor Law" that will benefit both sides of the party. Of course the law should prohibit public employees from going on strike. Article on New York's Taylor Law: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_LawWell, I complain too much; at least we have some answers courtesy of the LA Times. A group called the "OC Transit Angels Help Board" is available to provide free assistance to affected OCTA bus riders. There's a bunch of helpful information. OC Transit Angels: members6.boardhost.com/OCAngels/LA Times Article: www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-busstrike7jul07,1,5729681.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california&ctrack=3&cset=true Perhaps the transit union should view this strike from a transit-dependent's point of view and feel for themselves what kind of trouble OCTA bus riders and other commuters are going through right now over a 1% increase. If anybody is wondering how the wages add up, here's the rundown: I'll try to keep it unbiased as much as possible. Take a $20 per hour salary and raise it 13%. That's $2.60 raise: $22.60 per hour ($1,808 gross pay for 2 weeks at 40 hours per week). 14% raise is $2.80: $22.80 per hour ($1,824 gross pay for 2 weeks at 40 hours per week). That's a $16 gross difference per paycheck, $384 difference per year, and $1,152 difference for the life of the new 3 year contract.
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Post by tonyw79sfv on Jul 8, 2007 8:11:28 GMT -8
I noticed most of the routes operated by Veolia Transportation are using smaller buses. Only the busiest non-Veolia route, 43, is running, but with administrators who were former bus operators running the buses.
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Post by kenalpern on Jul 8, 2007 14:23:19 GMT -8
I won't go so far as to say that I'm anti-union, but I can with some certainty suggest that THIS union isn't behaving too well. For so much misery over so little a pay disparity, striking (which is supposed to be a last-ditch resort to be utilized only in extreme circumstances) is something that can only hurt this union's credibility.
Again, I'm not anti-union, but perhaps THIS union needs to ask itself whether it's behaving in a way that is hurtful to the busriders it takes care of.
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Post by whitmanlam on Jul 8, 2007 19:03:23 GMT -8
I can imagine the hardest being hit by this would be the Hotel employees around the Disney resort area and the Old Town Santa Ana shopping districts that are heavily Latino.
OCTA doesn't seem to budge on these cost issues, unlike MTA who have been running a huge deficit for decades. How big is OCTA's deficit anyway ??
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Post by bluelineshawn on Jul 8, 2007 20:59:34 GMT -8
I won't go so far as to say that I'm anti-union, but I can with some certainty suggest that THIS union isn't behaving too well. For so much misery over so little a pay disparity, striking (which is supposed to be a last-ditch resort to be utilized only in extreme circumstances) is something that can only hurt this union's credibility. Again, I'm not anti-union, but perhaps THIS union needs to ask itself whether it's behaving in a way that is hurtful to the busriders it takes care of. I'm generally pro-union, but this summarizes my sentiments exactly.
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Post by jeffe77 on Jul 9, 2007 7:42:14 GMT -8
FYI: I Commute via Amtrak and Metrolink to Irvine from Fullerton
Because of the Metrolink StationLink bus still in service, Metrolink passengers were able to arrive to work. I noticed an slight increase of ridership. I'm curious to see if there's a significant increase in ridership on Metrolink this afternoon.
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Post by nickv on Jul 9, 2007 19:16:07 GMT -8
FYI: I Commute via Amtrak and Metrolink to Irvine from FullertonBecause of the Metrolink StationLink bus still in service, Metrolink passengers were able to arrive to work. I noticed an slight increase of ridership. I'm curious to see if there's a significant increase in ridership on Metrolink this afternoon. I think it's a blessing that StationLink service is contracted and not union. I could not imagine what the So Cal freeways would be like if StationLink busses were out of service too. OC Line and IEOC Line riders originate from all over the Southland. Since OCTA Line 83 is out of service (AKA Line 205, the popular express line between Anaheim, Santa Ana, and Laguna Hills), I think the riders are using the Metrolink as an alternate, which is probably why ridership is up.
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Post by nickv on Jul 9, 2007 19:34:19 GMT -8
Here's another more than likely reason for an increase of Metrolink ridership during this strike:
Most of the commuter express lines are union operated. Per the OCTA Website, I noticed that most of OCTA commuter lines are out of service because of the strike. Lines 206 (Santa Ana-Irvine-Foothill Ranch), 211 (Seal Beach-Irvine), and 213 (Fullerton-Irvine) are out. The long distance Express Bus Lines 701, and 721 to LA are also out. The transit alternates are Metrolink and Metro Express 460.
I think that explains it.
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Post by kenalpern on Jul 10, 2007 4:33:34 GMT -8
There's a reason these sort of strikes should be made illegal...or something very close to illegal. Perhaps a partial walkout could have been arranged by the bus drivers union to show that they, as an organization composed of civil servants, understand that this issue really shouldn't be about THEM but the people they serve. This is not the private sector, and the bus drivers' livelihoods should never (over such a small disparity) be placed so high above the livelihoods of those they serve. I certainly see both sides of this dispute...but a strike is just not called for. I wish they would go back to work as a sign of good faith to the riders, and continue on with the negotiations to figure out how to close the relatively small gap in the ongoing pay dispute.
Ken
(From the L.A. Times) Bus strike means a hard road for the working poor Their struggle to get to jobs underlines Orange County's disparities. By Tony Barboza, Ashley Powers and Christian Berthelsen, Times Staff Writers July 10, 2007 OCTA on Strike Before sunrise Monday, his job running a sewing machine on the line, bus rider Andy Lee had little choice but to start walking. The 40-year-old walked from Anaheim to Garden Grove. He walked for so long he stopped for breakfast. By 8 a.m., he had been walking for more than two hours — with several miles still to go.
"Maybe I'll have to buy a bicycle," said an exasperated Lee, one of the thousands of desperate Orange County bus riders who responded to the first workday of the county's bus strike by carpooling, bicycling or begging for rides.
Though bus drivers, who are seeking higher wages, walked out Saturday, it took the workweek to begin for the strike to deliver its wallop. Folks struggled to commute. Workers scrambled to find rides. Sensing profit in some people's misfortune, enterprising motorists transformed their vans and trucks into bootleg taxicabs.
If anything, the bus strike, which shut down about 60% of the county's routes, highlighted Orange County's yawning gap between its wealthy and working class, between the haves and have-nots.
Many of the Orange County Transportation Authority's 225,000 daily riders are telemarketers, fast-food workers, maids, landscapers and machine operators trying to eke out a living in a county whose median home price in May — $635,000 — was the highest in Southern California.
Two-thirds of county bus riders are Latino, about one-fifth are white and 72% don't own a vehicle, according to a 2005 OCTA ridership survey. About half said they had annual household incomes of less than $20,000 — about $45,000 below the county's median.
"Public transportation here is really a fringe element of society," said Paul Stowell, 44, who was heading to a job interview Monday on one of the few operating bus lines. "You have the poor, the handicapped and people who lost their license."
On Monday, transit and union officials both used the wage gap to jockey for the public's backing.
Just as an OCTA press release said the agency was trying to offset a "major disruption" in its riders' lives, union leadership countered with its own plea to the working poor:
"Currently, many drivers already qualify for housing assistance, and the board's current offer only makes matters worse. OCTA wants to create poverty wages that are not in par with the cost of living in the region."
County bus drivers last walked off the job in December 1986. That two-week strike ended after transit officials threatened to fire about 700 strikers — who protested to the tune of Christmas carols — days before the holiday.
This time, dozens of drivers waved signs that said "On Strike" or "Union Yes" outside a bus yard in Garden Grove. Amy Wilkerson, a union shop steward, said labor leaders were worried that drivers — whose average age is 48 — would be hit hard in retirement by healthcare costs.
"We feel very much for our passengers, but it's not about them," she said.
Negotiations between Teamsters Local 952 and OCTA resumed Monday, with federal and state mediators shuttling between the two teams. Two issues other than salary had halted talks: how that pool of money should be divvied up among workers and whether money budgeted to cover medical insurance costs but not needed would continue to supplement the drivers' pension.
"We want to make sure all of our coach operators are compensated fairly," said OCTA Chairwoman Carolyn Cavecche. "We have offered a very fair compensation package."
Under the recently expired contract, a bus driver's hourly wage ranges from $13.72 to $21.42, with top drivers pulling in about $60,000 a year. OCTA has offered a 13% increase for the three-year contract, but drivers are seeking 14%, saying their old agreement failed to keep pace with inflation. About half the drivers live in Orange County, about 10% in Los Angeles County and the remainder in the Inland Empire, union officials said.
The union hopes to concentrate raises among the more senior of its 1,100 drivers — a reward for allowing officials six years ago to boost new drivers' pay. Transit officials, however, want to spread the raises more evenly — a necessary step, they argue, to woo drivers to a county with a high cost of living.
"We're not against having higher starting wage or money going to junior people," said Patrick D. Kelly, the union's secretary-treasurer. "But we have to keep our commitment to the group, the senior people who bit the bullet six years ago."
Another sticking point is funding for the drivers' pension. Historically, OCTA used the leftover employee medical insurance money to augment it. But this year, the authority proposed changing the way that money is paid out, and labor leaders balked.
The drivers were set to strike in May, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger got a court-ordered injunction, which expired at midnight Friday.
"They are trying to bring working families to a level where they can survive," said Ada Briceno, president of Unite Here Local 681, a hotel and restaurant workers union. "The strike is a necessary thing, and we back up our brothers in transportation."
Thirty-one OCTA routes were open Monday on a limited basis. Supervisors operated one of its most heavily traveled lines, No. 43, which links Fullerton to Costa Mesa via Harbor Boulevard.
Aboard that bus, security guard Dan Sheehy, 59, headed to work in Garden Grove and lamented the $20 he had to fork over to an acquaintance for a ride home — the bus was to stop running at 6 p.m. That money equaled one-third of what he pockets for his shift.
"The vast majority of people who are driving their cars up and down the freeways know nothing about the bus," he said. "It's a kind of socioeconomic separation."
Officials at St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point, Newport Beach Country Club and other businesses that lean heavily on service workers said the strike resulted in few problems. At Disneyland, officials said the walkout had "minimal impact" because only 1% of its 20,000 employees ride the bus.
Many small-business owners, particularly in bus-reliant Santa Ana, did suffer — more for lack of customers than for absent employees. Hairdresser Maria Salazar walked several miles to her salon Monday, praying for more clients than the weekend's few stragglers. Sam Romero, who owns a religious-goods shop, said weekend sales had plummeted 25%.
"I know my customers come on the bus because they are always asking for double bags, because they don't just hop into a car," he said.
Some people hitched rides with raiteros, who transformed their vehicles into makeshift taxicabs. Mario Ramirez, 44, abandoned his usual trips to Tijuana in favor of driving one man 10 miles, from Brea to Santa Ana, for $15.
David Trujillo, 39, asked the passengers he picked up on Beach Boulevard only for gas money, though he was loath to refuse tips. "I'll give anyone a ride who gives me a few dollars," he said in Spanish.
Although OCTA tacked up fliers announcing the strike at some stops, a few would-be riders lingered, staring down Chapman Avenue in Garden Grove for a bus that would never show.
"You'd better start walking, because the bus isn't coming!" yelled Guadalupe Trego, 28, a supervisor at Carl's Jr., to a student waiting at a corner. Trego had spent the morning traversing the county to pick up her employees.
"We that live close to work are lucky, but for those who live far away, they're really going to hurt," she said in Spanish. "We all need the bus, and we all need the money."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- tony.barboza@latimes.com
ashley.powers@latimes.com
christian.berthelsen@latimes.com
Times staff writers Jonathan Abrams, Jennifer Delson, Dave McKibben and Garrett Therolf contributed to this report.
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Post by kenalpern on Jul 10, 2007 4:39:19 GMT -8
Also from the Times...and I think this issue should be about the people profiled in this article, and not the bureaucrats, and not the bus drivers. Perhaps some of these individuals profiled should be asked to help drive the buses and replace those striking if this ridiculous strike doesn't end real soon. Clearly, these individuals should speak up more:
Bus strike hits hard in Santa Ana
The city's low-paid immigrant workers depend on public transportation and say they have little sympathy for the strikers. By Jennifer Delson, Times Staff Writer July 10, 2007
Three days into a strike by Orange County bus drivers, the walkout is resonating in Santa Ana with an urgency unfelt in neighboring cities.
Here in the county's civic core, low-paid immigrant workers say they depend on public transportation not only to get to work but to travel to the grocery store, take children to health clinics and to keep basic appointments.
And finding empathy here for striking drivers, some of whom earn more than $20 an hour, is a tall order.
On Monday, workers began long commutes riding bicycles, walking or bargaining for rides with unlicensed cabbies who have spotted the sudden business opportunity.
Experts say Santa Ana fits the profile of a city dependent on public transportation. In 2004, the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York, singled out Santa Ana as the city with the greatest level of "urban hardship" in the United States. High rents and low wages factor into that distinction.
Santa Ana remains a magnet for new immigrants, and 10% of city residents — double the state average — rely on public transportation, according to census data. The Orange County Transportation Authority reports that two-thirds of its bus riders are Latino.
At the corner of Pine and Main streets, where unlicensed taxi drivers typically wait for customers willing to pay $20 a head for rides to Tijuana, even drivers commiserated with customers they're now driving to local destinations.
"I couldn't even force myself to charge anyone," said driver Angel Benji, who transports clients in a late-model green van.
"I had a woman here crying that she would lose her job in Huntington Beach if she couldn't get there, and she had no money. She only makes $5 an hour as a nanny for some rich people," Benji said. "This is the sort of person affected by this strike — the poorest of the poor. How can we show compassion for a bus driver making $20 an hour?"
One bus driver, Benjamin C. Garcia, said he and his co-workers were just trying to keep up with the cost of living in Orange County.
"We are not asking to live in luxury. We are asking for what we need," said Garcia, 39. "Everything is going up. Gas, food and rent. We just want to be treated fairly."
In downtown Santa Ana, that message did little to placate those who rely on buses.
Hilda Cuellar, who works at Hugo's Beauty Salon, said she usually has 45 to 60 customers a weekend. She said that last weekend, with the strike in progress, she had only 12. Other business owners said foot traffic was alarmingly light on the weekend.
"People are calling to ask if there's any bus to our shop," Cuellar said. "I can't give them any good news. It's very frustrating. These people [bus drivers] want more money for their jobs, and we are hurting here. We have no customers and we still have to pay our bills, our taxes, and the people don't care."
Angel Paredes, 40, said he walked 45 minutes to South Main Street in Santa Ana, where he got a ride with a friend to a warehouse job about five miles away. He had planned for another friend to pick him up from work at 4:30 p.m. and take him to a second job at a fast-food chain. Paredes said he works 11 hours a day and makes about $500 a week.
Over the weekend, he and his wife skipped their usual grocery shopping because of the bus strike. Walking and hauling their groceries back home would have been too much, he said.
Nazario Garibay left his Santa Ana home at 5 a.m. to get to Orange, but by 7 had given up on getting to his gardening job, which pays $60 a day.
"It's getting harder and harder to just work in this country," said Garibay, 52, who vowed to return to his native Mexico if the bus strike continued.
Mario Gomez Garcia, 28, paid an unlicensed taxi driver $15 for a ride to Brea, where he earns $8 an hour shaping and cutting palm trees.
"I know that I'm giving the first two hours of salary to the cab driver, but it's better than losing the job," Gomez Garcia said. "Without a car, without a bus, we are really lost in this region."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- jennifer.delson@latimes.com
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Post by dasubergeek on Jul 10, 2007 12:54:10 GMT -8
All this over such a piddly amount.
I'm glad to read the article here -- I've had to stop reading the OC Register online because of their stupid comment board populated by bored racists.
I picked up three people this morning and drove them -- for free -- to the Fullerton Transportation Centre so they could catch the only bus (the 43) that was actually running.
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Post by kenalpern on Jul 10, 2007 16:33:24 GMT -8
Now THAT's what I call a good deed--thank you! Indeed, the OC Register and many in OC are populated with very weird and megalibertarian yahoos that can only be ignored since they're just so "out there".
I can only hope that this gets resolved soon or--dare I say it?--the OCTA gets some drivers from private companies to take over in the interim. Call them scabs, call them what you will, but I'm sure those relying on this public transportation will call them angels.
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Post by dasubergeek on Jul 10, 2007 20:24:28 GMT -8
I remember when the MTA struck the time before last, I was living in Santa Monica, and there were impromptu slug lines (if you don't know what a slug line is, go look up "slugging" on Wikipedia) on Wilshire and Santa Monica Blvds. You pulled up to the bus stop and called out where you were going and how many you could take ("tres para downtown", "uno para UCLA") and the first however many people got in the car.
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Post by kenalpern on Jul 10, 2007 23:23:41 GMT -8
It does make one wonder if/when jitney service or something like that can play a role not only during the strike but for the long haul, or if individual private solo cabs can help out with the transportation puzzle we're trying to fix.
Still, for the immediate term I hold this strike to be potentially illegal...and certainly immoral...and even if the OCTA management is wrong, then an arbiter can easily be called in to negotiate or even rule so long as the busdrivers get back to work!
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Post by tonyw79sfv on Jul 10, 2007 23:59:33 GMT -8
Taxi's won't help solve our transportation problem simply because they're hauling one person or small group at a time, no different than just driving your own car. It does play a role for those living the carfree lifestyle. Problem with taxis in LA are that they are expensive; you'd end up paying what would be a full tank of gas for only a 5 mile ride. Plus, taxis don't come up to you, you have to call them, unlike NYC.
In Bangkok, Thailand, there is a very small rail system in place, even smaller than ours consisting of two elevated heavy rail and a full deep bore subway (like our Red Line). However, those lines don't reach every part of that city, but anywhere you are in the city, there is always a taxi cab coming by you and you can pick one up and travel that 5 miles for around $2 - $4. It's much better than using the buses there.
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Post by LAofAnaheim on Jul 11, 2007 16:05:43 GMT -8
I was walking on Spring street around 3 pm yesterday (Tuesday) and I saw a couple hail a cab on Spring & 4th. Totally citylike. We'll get more of this eventually with a larger residential CITY population. More taxis are a good thing by the way. They don't need a place to park (taking up unneeded space) and aide well w/ public transportation. Heck, I use cabs to get around downtown late at night if I want to hit up the bars in the Historic Core (I live in South Park).
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Post by bluelineshawn on Jul 11, 2007 19:26:19 GMT -8
I think that there's some sort of effort by the city council to repeal the city law against hailing cabs. They also want to allow cabs to be able to stop at red curbs to drop off passengers, like buses can do.
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Post by nickv on Jul 14, 2007 15:44:49 GMT -8
The Strike is Over...Almost! We're now waiting for a vote from the transit union! We're almost there! ........................ LA Times - Contract settlement ends O.C. bus strike Orange County's transit agency reaches a tentative agreement with drivers to end a weeklong walkout. If the contract is ratified as expected Monday, service could be restored within days. www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ocbuses15jul15,0,6996270.story?coll=la-home-center ----------------------- OCTA And Teamsters Reach Agreement To Increase Wages And Benefits By 14.7% For All Coach Operators The OCTA and the Teamsters reached a tentative agreement on a three-year compensation package early Saturday morning, and the weeklong bus strike could end in a matter of days. In order to get the buses running again, the Teamsters union is scheduling a vote among its members to ratify the agreement. The OCTA Board of Directors has called special meeting for 9:30 a.m. Monday (July 16) to approve the contract. Some bus service could begin as early as Tuesday with increases throughout the week. On Monday, three major routes will be running: route No. 57 Orangethorpe Avenue to the Newport Beach Transportation Center; Route No. 60 from Goldenwest Street to Tustin; and No. 43 along Harbor Boulevard from Fullerton to Costa Mesa. Please keep checking here for the latest information or call 714.636.RIDE (7433). -- Arthur T. Leahy, OCTA Chief Executive Officer source: www.octa.net
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