POUGHKEEPSIE – Dutchess
County Public Transit workers voted overwhelmingly last month to authorize
a strike.
Teamsters’ representative Jerry Ebert said late Monday night at
the request of a federal mediator the union has agreed to extend the deadline
to Tuesday morning, April 10.
Poughkeepsie Common Council Chairwoman Ann Finney told the council during their Monday night meeting it is a situation they are watching closely. She said she is also in close contact with county Transit Administrator John Andoh.
“Advised us that they expect to be able to cover 80 percent of the routes, although not so frequently and they will be using non-union drivers, which many of us regret,” Finney said.
Ebert said later in the evening that “a lot is happening and we remain hopeful that we can improve the county’s first offer to us.”
He said the main issue is pay. He said bus drivers start off at $18.83 per hour and top off at $21.97 per hour. “This is less than any comparable municipal drivers in a 500-mile radius,” Ebert said.
The union will notify the public at 5 p.m. the day before a strike begins, Ebert said. “Our drivers have no desire to see any customers left waiting for a bus that never comes,” he said.
Finney also said at the council session that Andoh has been invited to the April 16 Common Council meeting. Before that meeting, she plans to review with him several points on the future of bus service in the city, now being provided by the county.
“On a practical basis, I certainly am happy with the service that the county is promising and we do hope that these disagreements about what the lease does and doesn’t provide are academic,” Finney said. “So, we’re looking forward to the RFP and the proposals for longer-term relationships with transit operators.”
Late last year, the previous city council agreed to a $1-a-year lease allowing Dutchess County to assume the seven former city buses.
