After eight months of struggle and three contract extensions, UE Local 274 members who drive, dispatch, and maintain buses for the Franklin Regional Transit Authority (FRTA) approved a new contract on February 6. The agreement brings a 1.5 percent general wage increase retroactive to July 1, 2012, the expiration date of the old contract; a 3 percent raise in July 2013; and 2.4 percent in July 2014. The contract will expire on January 31, 2015. The union also negotiated a $100 increase in the clothing allowance for maintenance workers.
The previous contract had included concessions, and this time workers were determined to grant no concessions and to win decent pay increases. The employer put concessionary demands on the table, affecting health insurance and overtime pay in particular, but the union bargaining committee and members were insistent that this be a "no-concession contract." The union achieved that goal.
Helping to bring negotiations to a successful conclusion was a "Rally for Respect" on the Greenfield Town Common on Saturday, February 2, with participation from community residents, other members of Local 274 (which is an amalgamated local), UE locals from Vermont and Connecticut, other unions and Jobs with Justice. One speaker was from the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which is also in a tough contract fight. Two days before the rally, UE members attended and spoke at a meeting of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, composed of officials of the towns served by the transit authority.
UE members at FRTA are technically employed by First Transit Management, a private contractor hired by the authority to operate the transit system. First Transit is part of the multinational corporation First Group. But from the beginning of negotiations, it was the director of the FRTA who determined the bargaining position of the First Transit negotiators. At the start negotiations wages of FRTA drivers were more than $6 an hour below the pay of drivers at the neighboring Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA). A major goal of UE members at FRTA was to close that gap, but they knew they could not do it in one contract, so they proposed moderate raises. Yet for months the FRTA refused to offer anything more than meager raises, despite the fact the director somehow found money to expand her administrative staff.
Over this long contract struggle, UE FRTA workers built public support for their goals by writing letters to the editor of the local newspaper, attending meetings of the Transit Advisory Board, talking to elected officials and community leaders, and distributing flyers and petitions throughout the area.
"Most of the members are happy with the outcome," said Gael Wakefield, a bus driver and president of Local 274. "There are a few who are not happy. I feel good about the fact that we've brought this to the attention of the public, and we will continue to work on this throughout the duration of this contract. The rally was excellent. It brought the community together. There are other union issues going on in the community, and some of the nurses and people from Greenfield Market showed up to help us out."
The UE bargaining committee consisted of Local 227 President Gael Wakefield, Ray Range, Tim Sall and Mike Dobias. They were assisted by UE Field Organizer Omar el-Malah.