Strike Would Idle Half of Riverside Bus Routes

Buses on nearly half of the Riverside Transit Agency’s routes probably won’t run Tuesday, potentially stranding thousands of commuters after union bus drivers and mechanics announced plans to strike.

Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union this week rejected the agency’s three-year compensation package offer, ending more than eight months of talks and setting the stage for Riverside’s first transit strike.

“The union was asking more than the agency could provide,” said Bradley Weaver, an agency spokesman. “We only have so much money to go around.”

Both sides initially agreed on an 8.5% salary increase over three years, but union officials want better health benefits for families of the 266 employees and requested that the agency’s management receive the same raises as the rank and file.

“This is a team; we’re in this together,” said Neil Silver, Local 1277 president, of the request for equal raises. “All [the agency is] is a welfare office for white-collar workers.”

No further formal negotiations were scheduled, Weaver said. The agency’s top hourly wage for bus drivers is $19.06, he said, more than other inland transit agencies.

Twenty of the agency’s 43 routes, primarily in Riverside and Moreno Valley, are to be suspended next week, Weaver said. The remainder are operated by nonunion drivers. Daily ridership on RTA buses exceeds 14,000 boardings, Weaver said.

Dial-a-ride services for senior citizens and disabled riders and express commuter buses will operate as usual, Weaver said.