UPDATED: Bakersfield Bus Drivers Continue Strike As Both Sides Reject Each Other’s Offers

Talks aimed at ending Bakersfield’s more than two-week-old public bus strike convened for less than an hour Thursday before being abandoned, Golden Empire Transit District reported.

No further negotiations were scheduled. [Emphasis added.]

Original post: They’ve been on strike for a little more than a week but Bakersfield’s 250 bus drivers and mechanics may be out for a while longer if progress continues to elude the parties, as it did earlier today.

In fact, the Teamsters—the strikers’ representatives—didn’t even bother bringing management’s offer back to the strikers.

Negotiation teams for both Golden Empire Transit and the Teamsters Union met Wednesday morning. But before noon, union reps told members there was no deal.

“Unfortunately when we met with them today the offer that they were considering yesterday was rejected,” Business Agent Gary Jenkins told the strikers. He said GET came back with a new offer. “And, in our opinion it was nothing that we’d even bring back to you guys.”

Union drivers, mechanics and other support staff went on strike July 15, unhappy with pay and the part-time status of more than half of their GET drivers. The union was asking for a 4 percent wage increase every year over a three-year deal.

Then, Friday, union negotiators offered another proposal. That was considered by the GET board of directors Tuesday afternoon. They apparently rejected that, and sent their negotiating team in Wednesday morning with a new offer.

“We were talking at 4 percent, lowest we’d go is right around 3 percent,” Teamsters Secretary-Treasurer Chester Suniga told Eyewitness News. He said the GET director had a new offer, “She came in substantially lower than that.” He would not say exactly what the offer was. [Emphasis added.]

Read the rest at Bakersfield Now.

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