Sun Tran, union contract negotiations ongoing in Tucson

Sun Tran and Teamsters Local 104 officials said union and company representatives are putting in long hours to hammer out a new work contract, which was set to expire Friday night.

“Communications continue,” Katrina Heineking, regional vice president for Sun Tran’s private operator Transdev told the Star on Friday evening. “(The) parties continue to work hard to reach agreement.”

Earlier in the day, Karla Schumann, the union’s secretary-treasurer, said, “When you get down to the 11th hour, like we are, things tend to speed up a little bit, so that’s a good thing.”

“We’re hashing through the hard issues right now and we’ll see where we come out,” she said.

If a final agreement is not reached by the end of Friday, Schumann said, “I would hope, that if we are diligently working at something, and we simply run out of time … that both sides would be amicable about doing what would be necessary to continue that process without crippling the city.”

The Sun Tran bus system was paralyzed by a 42-day strike in the summer of 2015 after contract negotiations broke down.

The Teamsters have scheduled three meetings for Saturday, July 1, but the content of those meetings will be determined by what happened Friday, Schumann said. There could be votes by drivers, mechanics and other union members to ratify a new contract, votes to authorize a strike, a strike vote, or “it could be an update,” she said.

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City Councilman Steve Kozachik said he has been informed by City Manager Michael Ortega that “everything is on the table,” including measures that could allow Sun Tran employees to enjoy any raises that city employees receive, something he has previously described to the Star as a “me-too” clause.

“We’ve emptied the cookie jar on the table,” he said. “What they see in front of them is everything that is available.”

The city, which cannot directly participate in negotiations, recently hired a third-party negotiator to help with the talks, which started in early June. That came shortly after the approval of a three-month contract extension with Transdev, the current private manager of Sun Tran and other regional transit services. The company’s contract runs out Aug. 31.

A company letter sent to employees June 8 and obtained by the Star states that Transdev “regrets that our association with Sun Tran and Sun Van is ending.”

It goes on to say that a “new transportation service provider will assume Transdev’s management duties for approximately eight months.” Tucson intends to eventually put out a request for proposals for a single private operator to run the entire transit system, as opposed to the current arrangement in which a separate private operator — RDMT — manages the Sun Link streetcar.

The letter, sent by Heineking, says Tansdev “plans to earnestly participate in this process as an applicant.” The city expects all current Sun Tran employees to remain “in their current positions,” according to the same letter.

Updates can be found at Sun Tran’s Facebook and Twitter pages and at www. suntran.com