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"content": "\u003cp>A California bill aimed at preventing more stonecutters from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969381/california-regulators-to-vote-on-emergency-rules-for-stonecutters-safety\">contracting a deadly lung disease\u003c/a> on the job cleared its first legislative hurdle on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposed law, SB 20, seeks to expand regulations to protect workers from inhaling toxic silica particles while power-cutting and polishing slabs of artificial stone for kitchen and bathroom countertops and other products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Artificial stone countertops have exploded in popularity because they are cheaper and easier to clean than natural stone. However, cutting the factory-made slabs without proper protective equipment is linked to a more aggressive form of silicosis, a disease historically associated with miners and stonecutters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Artificial stone is now the top countertop material in the U.S., with a market size of \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/OSHSB/documents/Respirable-Crystalline-Silica-Emergency-FOE.pdf\">$17.7 billion\u003c/a>, according to a report by state workplace safety regulators. Critics argue that SB 20 won’t be enough to stem a growing public health crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, health authorities have \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CCDPHP/DEODC/OHB/Pages/essdashboard.aspx\">tracked\u003c/a> about 260 silicosis cases among mostly Latino countertop fabrication workers since 2019, with Los Angeles County’s San Fernando Valley as the epicenter of the outbreak. At least 15 people have died. Dozens underwent lung transplants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley) introduced SB 20.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033047\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033047\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-002-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-002-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-002-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-002-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-002-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-002-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-002-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A stone fabricator places his hand on a table that he cut at his home in San Francisco on Oct. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We need to do better to protect these individuals,” Menjivar told the Senate’s Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee at Wednesday’s hearing. “I’ve met someone who was in his early 30s who had a double lung transplant. This is no inexpensive disease. This is life threatening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Artificial stone, also known as quartz or engineered stone, is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956246/california-fast-tracks-rules-to-protect-stonecutters-from-horrible-deaths\">uniquely hazardous to stonecutters\u003c/a> because it can contain up to 93% silica — significantly more than natural alternatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California workplace regulators \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969846/california-regulators-approve-emergency-rules-to-protect-stonecutters-from-deadly-disease\">approved emergency rules\u003c/a> in December 2023 banning the dry cutting of engineered stone. Fabrication shops must use wet-cutting saws and other tools that submerge slabs under water to suppress dust. Those Cal/OSHA rules \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2024/2024-111.html#:~:text=Sacramento%E2%80%94The%20Occupational%20Safety%20and%20Health%20Standards%20Board,stone%20containing%20more%20than%2010%%20crystalline%20silica.\">became permanent\u003c/a> a year later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SB 20 would go further by establishing certification and training requirements for fabrication shops to operate safely while also prohibiting the supply of artificial stone to unlicensed businesses or people after January 2027. The bill, which the labor committee advanced with a unanimous vote, would also require the state to create a public online database that tracks enforcement actions against fabrication businesses. SB 20 heads next to a hearing at the Senate Health Committee.[aside postID=news_11969381 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-016-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']Judy Yee, a legislative advocate with the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, said many fabrication shops in Los Angeles County are unregulated, often operating out of garages or the backs of trailers. The businesses employ mostly non-unionized undocumented immigrants, who may fear speaking up about unsafe workplace practices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without proper training, tracking and prevention efforts, the state will continue to see a rise in silicosis cases and deaths, according to Yee and other supporters of Menjivar’s bill at the hearing. Representatives for industry groups and Cosentino, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of engineered stone, also attended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe SB 20 represents a critical step toward complementing California’s recently adopted silica regulations with a well-structured certification program for artificial stone fabricators,” Eric Rose, a spokesperson with the Stone Coalition, which represents manufacturers, distributors and fabricators, said in a statement. “A certification framework — paired with robust oversight and enforcement — will help ensure that all fabricators, particularly bad actors, are held to consistent health and safety standards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of silicosis patients in California are suing the largest engineered stone manufacturers — Cosentino, Caesarstone and Cambria — arguing that the companies failed to adequately label and warn of the hazards of their products, according to James Nevin, one of the attorneys representing workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964918\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11964918\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-003-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holds a phone showing the photo of a stone fireplace.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-003-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-003-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-003-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-003-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-003-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-003-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A stone fabrication worker shares a photo on his phone of stonecutting work from his job at his home in San Francisco on Oct. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nevin and other critics of SB 20 doubt a licensing process will protect most stonecutters. According to Nevin, many fabrication shops will continue operating without certification because they can’t afford the expensive equipment needed to comply with Cal/OSHA rules to handle the material safely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco resident Jorge Estrella Moreno, one of the workers suing the manufacturers, was diagnosed with silicosis about two years ago. His symptoms — feeling like he can’t get enough air when talking or walking uphill — have worsened, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The long-time stonecutter, who prides himself in having raised three kids in the U.S. with the job, continues to work at a fabrication shop that cuts artificial stone slabs dry, exposing him and others to dust clouds, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t have another option. I have to pay bills and rent, and if I don’t work, I don’t have enough to eat,” Estrella Moreno, 49, told KQED in Spanish.[aside postID=news_12022784 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250117_Safeway-Injuries_DMB_00163-1020x680.jpg']Maegan Ortiz, who directs a labor center that educates countertop fabrication workers in the San Fernando Valley on work hazards, worried that SB 20 would further drive small fabrication shops underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The only way to deal with the silicosis crisis is to actually stop the usage of this artificial stone with the high silica content,” said Ortiz, executive director at Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California. “Basically, all that this bill does is ensure that big companies and big shops have the above-ground market of artificial stone … As far as we are concerned, SB 20 is a gift to the industry and not a gift to workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Australia became the first country to \u003ca href=\"https://www.dewr.gov.au/engineeredstone\">ban the use\u003c/a>, supply and manufacture of engineered stone last year due to a rising silicosis epidemic. Top engineered stone manufacturers hope to avoid that fate in California, where Cal/OSHA officials have suggested a ban may be needed if widespread noncompliance with safety rules continues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Manufacturers maintain that the material is used safely to produce countertops when appropriate measures are followed and that a ban would unnecessarily decimate jobs. Representatives for Cosentino, a company based in Spain, and the Israel-based Caesarstone, told Cal/OSHA in 2023 that they would support creating a licensing program to sell artificial stone only to fabrication shops equipped to handle it safely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SB 20 is nearly identical to a bill Menjivar co-authored last year. That bill’s main author, former Assemblymember Luz Rivas, who was elected to Congress in November, pulled \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB3043\">AB 3043\u003c/a>, arguing that state regulators were “not receptive to creating a tracking system to identify licensed fabrication shops.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Estrella Moreno said he would prefer to use safer stone alternatives at work and believes the most effective way to protect workers like himself would be for state regulators to prohibit the use and sale of artificial stone altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A ban would be the best thing for everyone,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Artificial stone is now the top countertop material in the U.S., with a market size of \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/OSHSB/documents/Respirable-Crystalline-Silica-Emergency-FOE.pdf\">$17.7 billion\u003c/a>, according to a report by state workplace safety regulators. Critics argue that SB 20 won’t be enough to stem a growing public health crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, health authorities have \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CCDPHP/DEODC/OHB/Pages/essdashboard.aspx\">tracked\u003c/a> about 260 silicosis cases among mostly Latino countertop fabrication workers since 2019, with Los Angeles County’s San Fernando Valley as the epicenter of the outbreak. At least 15 people have died. Dozens underwent lung transplants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley) introduced SB 20.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033047\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033047\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-002-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-002-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-002-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-002-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-002-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-002-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-002-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A stone fabricator places his hand on a table that he cut at his home in San Francisco on Oct. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We need to do better to protect these individuals,” Menjivar told the Senate’s Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee at Wednesday’s hearing. “I’ve met someone who was in his early 30s who had a double lung transplant. This is no inexpensive disease. This is life threatening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Artificial stone, also known as quartz or engineered stone, is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956246/california-fast-tracks-rules-to-protect-stonecutters-from-horrible-deaths\">uniquely hazardous to stonecutters\u003c/a> because it can contain up to 93% silica — significantly more than natural alternatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California workplace regulators \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969846/california-regulators-approve-emergency-rules-to-protect-stonecutters-from-deadly-disease\">approved emergency rules\u003c/a> in December 2023 banning the dry cutting of engineered stone. Fabrication shops must use wet-cutting saws and other tools that submerge slabs under water to suppress dust. Those Cal/OSHA rules \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2024/2024-111.html#:~:text=Sacramento%E2%80%94The%20Occupational%20Safety%20and%20Health%20Standards%20Board,stone%20containing%20more%20than%2010%%20crystalline%20silica.\">became permanent\u003c/a> a year later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SB 20 would go further by establishing certification and training requirements for fabrication shops to operate safely while also prohibiting the supply of artificial stone to unlicensed businesses or people after January 2027. The bill, which the labor committee advanced with a unanimous vote, would also require the state to create a public online database that tracks enforcement actions against fabrication businesses. SB 20 heads next to a hearing at the Senate Health Committee.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Judy Yee, a legislative advocate with the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, said many fabrication shops in Los Angeles County are unregulated, often operating out of garages or the backs of trailers. The businesses employ mostly non-unionized undocumented immigrants, who may fear speaking up about unsafe workplace practices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without proper training, tracking and prevention efforts, the state will continue to see a rise in silicosis cases and deaths, according to Yee and other supporters of Menjivar’s bill at the hearing. Representatives for industry groups and Cosentino, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of engineered stone, also attended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe SB 20 represents a critical step toward complementing California’s recently adopted silica regulations with a well-structured certification program for artificial stone fabricators,” Eric Rose, a spokesperson with the Stone Coalition, which represents manufacturers, distributors and fabricators, said in a statement. “A certification framework — paired with robust oversight and enforcement — will help ensure that all fabricators, particularly bad actors, are held to consistent health and safety standards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of silicosis patients in California are suing the largest engineered stone manufacturers — Cosentino, Caesarstone and Cambria — arguing that the companies failed to adequately label and warn of the hazards of their products, according to James Nevin, one of the attorneys representing workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964918\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11964918\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-003-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holds a phone showing the photo of a stone fireplace.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-003-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-003-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-003-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-003-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-003-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/231017-StonecutterSilicosis-003-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A stone fabrication worker shares a photo on his phone of stonecutting work from his job at his home in San Francisco on Oct. 17, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nevin and other critics of SB 20 doubt a licensing process will protect most stonecutters. According to Nevin, many fabrication shops will continue operating without certification because they can’t afford the expensive equipment needed to comply with Cal/OSHA rules to handle the material safely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco resident Jorge Estrella Moreno, one of the workers suing the manufacturers, was diagnosed with silicosis about two years ago. His symptoms — feeling like he can’t get enough air when talking or walking uphill — have worsened, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The long-time stonecutter, who prides himself in having raised three kids in the U.S. with the job, continues to work at a fabrication shop that cuts artificial stone slabs dry, exposing him and others to dust clouds, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t have another option. I have to pay bills and rent, and if I don’t work, I don’t have enough to eat,” Estrella Moreno, 49, told KQED in Spanish.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Maegan Ortiz, who directs a labor center that educates countertop fabrication workers in the San Fernando Valley on work hazards, worried that SB 20 would further drive small fabrication shops underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The only way to deal with the silicosis crisis is to actually stop the usage of this artificial stone with the high silica content,” said Ortiz, executive director at Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California. “Basically, all that this bill does is ensure that big companies and big shops have the above-ground market of artificial stone … As far as we are concerned, SB 20 is a gift to the industry and not a gift to workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Australia became the first country to \u003ca href=\"https://www.dewr.gov.au/engineeredstone\">ban the use\u003c/a>, supply and manufacture of engineered stone last year due to a rising silicosis epidemic. Top engineered stone manufacturers hope to avoid that fate in California, where Cal/OSHA officials have suggested a ban may be needed if widespread noncompliance with safety rules continues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Manufacturers maintain that the material is used safely to produce countertops when appropriate measures are followed and that a ban would unnecessarily decimate jobs. Representatives for Cosentino, a company based in Spain, and the Israel-based Caesarstone, told Cal/OSHA in 2023 that they would support creating a licensing program to sell artificial stone only to fabrication shops equipped to handle it safely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SB 20 is nearly identical to a bill Menjivar co-authored last year. That bill’s main author, former Assemblymember Luz Rivas, who was elected to Congress in November, pulled \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB3043\">AB 3043\u003c/a>, arguing that state regulators were “not receptive to creating a tracking system to identify licensed fabrication shops.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Estrella Moreno said he would prefer to use safer stone alternatives at work and believes the most effective way to protect workers like himself would be for state regulators to prohibit the use and sale of artificial stone altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A ban would be the best thing for everyone,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Historic VTA Strike Will End After Judge’s Order, Some Service to Resume by Friday",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 6 p.m. Wednesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032851/transit-standoff-continues-union-vta-blame-each-other-as-riders-struggle\">historic strike\u003c/a> by South Bay transit workers that has affected tens of thousands of people who rely on public transportation will come to an end after a Santa Clara County Judge issued a preliminary injunction to halt it Wednesday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The injunction, signed by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Daniel T. Nishigaya in a San José courtroom, means Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority employees will need to return to work immediately, but it wasn’t clear how long it would take for all transit services to resume.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaders of the union representing the workers, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, said they were disappointed in the outcome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ll determine what happens tomorrow shortly, but we believe that the judge got this wrong,” ATU President Raj Singh said outside a downtown courthouse on Wednesday. “At the end of the day, the workers lost today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>VTA spokesperson Stacey Hendler Ross said the agency is pleased with the outcome for riders and for workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are appreciative of this ruling so that our employees can get back to work. They’ve been two weeks without paychecks and tens of thousands of people have been two weeks without affordable transportation,” Hendler Ross said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033241\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033241\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-09-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-09-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-09-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Daniel T. Nishigaya listens to an attorney speak during a hearing in San José on March 26, 2025. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority asked the court to halt a strike by workers represented by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hendler Ross said Nishigaya’s injunction means striking VTA workers need to return to work right away. She said workers would be required to report to work on Thursday, and partial bus service would resume by Friday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t immediately clear when light rail trains will begin rolling again, as Hendler Ross said the tracks and overhead lines would need to be inspected before service can start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA initiated the legal process on March 10, the first day of the strike, by filing a complaint asking for an injunction and a temporary restraining order to halt the strike, claiming it violated a “no-strike clause” of a collective bargaining agreement between the agency and the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nishigaya, on March 17, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031632/vtas-legal-challenge-ongoing-transit-strike-hits-snag\">denied the agency’s request for a restraining order\u003c/a> but required the parties to come back to court on Wednesday so ATU could argue why its strike was not a violation of the contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12032851 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/VTA-Day-15-Singh_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency’s attorneys alleged in court filings that the union never gave VTA proper notice that it wanted to end or change the agreement and said the no-strike conditions remain in “full force and effect” for another year while negotiations for a new contract continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agreement — which expired on March 3 — said the contract continues from “year to year” after its expiration and requires the two sides “continue to negotiate until there is a successor agreement,” the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The court does believe that there is at least a reasonable interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement that would lead to the conclusion that the agreement, including the no-strike provision, remains in full force in effect until agreement is reached,” Nishigaya said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ATU countered that the contract rules were no longer applicable because bargaining for a new contract had ended, and the union declared an impasse a few days before the strike began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union also pointed to instances in which the agency’s officials seemed to telegraph the potential for a strike, like in a Feb. 27, 2025, memo to employees from the VTA’s Chief People Officer Sonya Morrison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033250\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033250\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Attorneys for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, Xudong (Brian) Fan (left) and Benjamin K. Lunch. Right: Ruth M. Bond, an attorney for Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, are seen during a hearing in Santa Clara County Superior Court in San José on March 26, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Morrison’s memo said if a contract agreement was not reached by the expiration, “‘there is the potential for a work stoppage,’” the union’s attorneys wrote. “VTA thus acknowledged to all of its employees that the union may go on strike.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“None of that would be necessary if VTA truly believed the contract was not expiring,” Benjamin Lunch, an attorney for the union, said to Nishigaya during the hearing. “For them to then turn around and say that the contract somehow did not expire, is a wild about-face for the agency to take.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA claimed Morrison’s statements do not change the rules of the contract agreement and disagrees that the two sides have reached an impasse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenica Maldonado, an attorney for VTA, emphasized to Nishigaya that there was no impasse but noted that any impasse “would have evaporated by virtue of the fact that the parties continued to meet for bargaining sessions all last week to make additional proposals, and the union took votes on those proposals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lunch also argued that VTA’s interpretation of how the contract should be enforced would take away the union’s right to strike and would create “an indefinite contract.” The agency has consistently pushed back on that claim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While issuing his ruling, Nishigaya underscored that, in this case, it’s not the court’s role to litigate the entire case. His decision was based on the “reasonable probability of success” VTA has with its claim that the union is in breach of contract with its strike, and considering the harm that would occur if he did not issue the injunction, weighed against the harm to the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not a final decision on the merits of any claims or lawsuits, but only to determine whether there is at least a colorable and reasonable probability that plaintiffs’ claims have merit,” Nishigaya said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033237\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033237\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-01-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-01-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority Deputy General Manager Greg Richardson is seen during a hearing in Santa Clara County Superior Court in San José on March 26, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The ruling comes two days after ATU members \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032851/transit-standoff-continues-union-vta-blame-each-other-as-riders-struggle\">roundly rejected\u003c/a> the latest contract offer from the VTA, with more than 80% of those who voted shooting it down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That contract offer was finalized in a special closed-session meeting by the VTA board of directors on Sunday and included an 11% raise for the union members over three years while also asking for some concessions from workers, such as potential restrictions on overtime pay in certain circumstances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh previously said Monday afternoon that VTA’s “aggressive bargaining” is part of why that offer was voted down, including the agency’s refusal to drop its lawsuit to stop the strike and to guarantee workers wouldn’t be disciplined for striking after returning to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The injunction represents a success for VTA, which has pursued multiple concurrent avenues to try and end the strike, including the legal challenge, as well as asking for the governor’s intervention and offering revised contract deals to the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency also announced late Monday a deal with Uber, in which people ordering rides between transit stops through the Uber app would get a $5 voucher during the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency said the voucher would be paid for by VTA, up to two per day per person, and was aimed at reducing the cost of car transportation while transit services were unavailable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was unfortunate that lawyers had to get involved because we were doing this on behalf of the tens of thousands of people who rely on public transportation,” Hendler Ross said. “They need public transportation, there are so many people who have no other option.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ll determine what happens tomorrow shortly, but we believe that the judge got this wrong,” ATU President Raj Singh said outside a downtown courthouse on Wednesday. “At the end of the day, the workers lost today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>VTA spokesperson Stacey Hendler Ross said the agency is pleased with the outcome for riders and for workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are appreciative of this ruling so that our employees can get back to work. They’ve been two weeks without paychecks and tens of thousands of people have been two weeks without affordable transportation,” Hendler Ross said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033241\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033241\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-09-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-09-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-09-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Daniel T. Nishigaya listens to an attorney speak during a hearing in San José on March 26, 2025. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority asked the court to halt a strike by workers represented by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hendler Ross said Nishigaya’s injunction means striking VTA workers need to return to work right away. She said workers would be required to report to work on Thursday, and partial bus service would resume by Friday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t immediately clear when light rail trains will begin rolling again, as Hendler Ross said the tracks and overhead lines would need to be inspected before service can start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA initiated the legal process on March 10, the first day of the strike, by filing a complaint asking for an injunction and a temporary restraining order to halt the strike, claiming it violated a “no-strike clause” of a collective bargaining agreement between the agency and the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nishigaya, on March 17, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031632/vtas-legal-challenge-ongoing-transit-strike-hits-snag\">denied the agency’s request for a restraining order\u003c/a> but required the parties to come back to court on Wednesday so ATU could argue why its strike was not a violation of the contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency’s attorneys alleged in court filings that the union never gave VTA proper notice that it wanted to end or change the agreement and said the no-strike conditions remain in “full force and effect” for another year while negotiations for a new contract continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agreement — which expired on March 3 — said the contract continues from “year to year” after its expiration and requires the two sides “continue to negotiate until there is a successor agreement,” the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The court does believe that there is at least a reasonable interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement that would lead to the conclusion that the agreement, including the no-strike provision, remains in full force in effect until agreement is reached,” Nishigaya said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ATU countered that the contract rules were no longer applicable because bargaining for a new contract had ended, and the union declared an impasse a few days before the strike began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union also pointed to instances in which the agency’s officials seemed to telegraph the potential for a strike, like in a Feb. 27, 2025, memo to employees from the VTA’s Chief People Officer Sonya Morrison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033250\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033250\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-14-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Attorneys for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, Xudong (Brian) Fan (left) and Benjamin K. Lunch. Right: Ruth M. Bond, an attorney for Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, are seen during a hearing in Santa Clara County Superior Court in San José on March 26, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Morrison’s memo said if a contract agreement was not reached by the expiration, “‘there is the potential for a work stoppage,’” the union’s attorneys wrote. “VTA thus acknowledged to all of its employees that the union may go on strike.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“None of that would be necessary if VTA truly believed the contract was not expiring,” Benjamin Lunch, an attorney for the union, said to Nishigaya during the hearing. “For them to then turn around and say that the contract somehow did not expire, is a wild about-face for the agency to take.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA claimed Morrison’s statements do not change the rules of the contract agreement and disagrees that the two sides have reached an impasse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenica Maldonado, an attorney for VTA, emphasized to Nishigaya that there was no impasse but noted that any impasse “would have evaporated by virtue of the fact that the parties continued to meet for bargaining sessions all last week to make additional proposals, and the union took votes on those proposals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lunch also argued that VTA’s interpretation of how the contract should be enforced would take away the union’s right to strike and would create “an indefinite contract.” The agency has consistently pushed back on that claim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While issuing his ruling, Nishigaya underscored that, in this case, it’s not the court’s role to litigate the entire case. His decision was based on the “reasonable probability of success” VTA has with its claim that the union is in breach of contract with its strike, and considering the harm that would occur if he did not issue the injunction, weighed against the harm to the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not a final decision on the merits of any claims or lawsuits, but only to determine whether there is at least a colorable and reasonable probability that plaintiffs’ claims have merit,” Nishigaya said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033237\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033237\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-01-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250326-VTACOURT.-JG-01-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority Deputy General Manager Greg Richardson is seen during a hearing in Santa Clara County Superior Court in San José on March 26, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The ruling comes two days after ATU members \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032851/transit-standoff-continues-union-vta-blame-each-other-as-riders-struggle\">roundly rejected\u003c/a> the latest contract offer from the VTA, with more than 80% of those who voted shooting it down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That contract offer was finalized in a special closed-session meeting by the VTA board of directors on Sunday and included an 11% raise for the union members over three years while also asking for some concessions from workers, such as potential restrictions on overtime pay in certain circumstances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh previously said Monday afternoon that VTA’s “aggressive bargaining” is part of why that offer was voted down, including the agency’s refusal to drop its lawsuit to stop the strike and to guarantee workers wouldn’t be disciplined for striking after returning to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The injunction represents a success for VTA, which has pursued multiple concurrent avenues to try and end the strike, including the legal challenge, as well as asking for the governor’s intervention and offering revised contract deals to the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency also announced late Monday a deal with Uber, in which people ordering rides between transit stops through the Uber app would get a $5 voucher during the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency said the voucher would be paid for by VTA, up to two per day per person, and was aimed at reducing the cost of car transportation while transit services were unavailable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was unfortunate that lawyers had to get involved because we were doing this on behalf of the tens of thousands of people who rely on public transportation,” Hendler Ross said. “They need public transportation, there are so many people who have no other option.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The strike by South Bay transit workers will continue for a 16th consecutive day on Tuesday, after Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 members voted down the latest contract offer from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/santa-clara-valley-transportation-authority\">Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The contract proposal, which included an 11 percent wage increase over three years, was rejected by more than 80%, according to union officials who said 1,117 votes were cast with 919 members turning it down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our members want to get back to work. The service our members provide this community is invaluable, and our customers have suffered greatly these past two weeks,” Raj Singh, president of the union, said Monday afternoon outside the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds building where ATU members cast their votes. “Our members will only return to work with a fair contract, one that guarantees their rights, their dignity and their safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has been a difficult time and a difficult vote.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The historic strike by more than 1,500 bus drivers, light rail train operators, maintenance workers and dispatchers represented by ATU has halted transit for tens of thousands of daily riders in Santa Clara County, forcing many to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">find alternate transportation\u003c/a>, sometimes at an increased cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rejection comes one day after VTA’s Board of Directors held a special meeting to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032652/vta-slightly-boosts-raise-offer-union-says-it-falls-far-short\">up their wage offer\u003c/a> to the union members while also including some concessions, such as potential restrictions on overtime pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a more than fair proposal for employees and we at this point are very concerned about the tens of thousands of riders who are not getting to their minimum wage jobs and we need people to come back to work,” Stacey Hendler Ross, a VTA spokesperson, said Monday after the results of the vote were announced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said the offer was likely rejected, in part, because of what he called the agency’s “aggressive bargaining,” including that the VTA declined to guarantee workers wouldn’t be disciplined for striking after returning to work, refused to drop its lawsuit to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031632/vtas-legal-challenge-ongoing-transit-strike-hits-snag\">stop the strike\u003c/a>, as well as overtime restrictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Had they not done that, we might have had a different outcome,” Singh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030671\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030671\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Baypointe light rail platform in San José has been vacant since March 10, 2025, the first day of a strike by the union representing VTA’s bus drivers and light rail train operators. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The two sides continued to blame one another for the lack of a resolution and said new offers could be made to help resume negotiations. When asked about his message to riders who have been struggling without transit for more than two weeks, Singh pointed the finger at VTA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The agency has continued to play games and not put forth a serious effort in resolving things,” he said. “They are the ones that continue to stall these conversations instead of trying to come to an agreement and get service restored as soon as possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hendler Ross said the agency is “not interested in negotiating the contract in the media,” and added that “negotiations remain open for ATU to come to the table.”[aside postID=news_12031632 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-4.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the vote, the agency said in a statement that its most recent offer provides “stability and opportunity” to its workers in an uncertain time across many industries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“VTA’s latest proposal reflects our commitment to our workforce, and we urge our employees to embrace this chance to secure their future and return to work,” the statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency said about 100,000 riders use bus and light rail services every weekday, a large proportion of whom earn lower incomes and are students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>VTA sued the union on the first day of the strike, alleging that the work stoppage violated a no-strike clause in the bargaining agreement between the agency and ATU.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A county judge rejected VTA’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt the strike on March 17, but asked ATU to come back to court on Wednesday to argue why the strike is not a violation of the agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The strike by South Bay transit workers will continue for a 16th consecutive day on Tuesday, after Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 members voted down the latest contract offer from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/santa-clara-valley-transportation-authority\">Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The contract proposal, which included an 11 percent wage increase over three years, was rejected by more than 80%, according to union officials who said 1,117 votes were cast with 919 members turning it down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our members want to get back to work. The service our members provide this community is invaluable, and our customers have suffered greatly these past two weeks,” Raj Singh, president of the union, said Monday afternoon outside the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds building where ATU members cast their votes. “Our members will only return to work with a fair contract, one that guarantees their rights, their dignity and their safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has been a difficult time and a difficult vote.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The historic strike by more than 1,500 bus drivers, light rail train operators, maintenance workers and dispatchers represented by ATU has halted transit for tens of thousands of daily riders in Santa Clara County, forcing many to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">find alternate transportation\u003c/a>, sometimes at an increased cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rejection comes one day after VTA’s Board of Directors held a special meeting to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032652/vta-slightly-boosts-raise-offer-union-says-it-falls-far-short\">up their wage offer\u003c/a> to the union members while also including some concessions, such as potential restrictions on overtime pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a more than fair proposal for employees and we at this point are very concerned about the tens of thousands of riders who are not getting to their minimum wage jobs and we need people to come back to work,” Stacey Hendler Ross, a VTA spokesperson, said Monday after the results of the vote were announced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said the offer was likely rejected, in part, because of what he called the agency’s “aggressive bargaining,” including that the VTA declined to guarantee workers wouldn’t be disciplined for striking after returning to work, refused to drop its lawsuit to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031632/vtas-legal-challenge-ongoing-transit-strike-hits-snag\">stop the strike\u003c/a>, as well as overtime restrictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Had they not done that, we might have had a different outcome,” Singh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030671\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030671\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Baypointe light rail platform in San José has been vacant since March 10, 2025, the first day of a strike by the union representing VTA’s bus drivers and light rail train operators. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The two sides continued to blame one another for the lack of a resolution and said new offers could be made to help resume negotiations. When asked about his message to riders who have been struggling without transit for more than two weeks, Singh pointed the finger at VTA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The agency has continued to play games and not put forth a serious effort in resolving things,” he said. “They are the ones that continue to stall these conversations instead of trying to come to an agreement and get service restored as soon as possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hendler Ross said the agency is “not interested in negotiating the contract in the media,” and added that “negotiations remain open for ATU to come to the table.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the vote, the agency said in a statement that its most recent offer provides “stability and opportunity” to its workers in an uncertain time across many industries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“VTA’s latest proposal reflects our commitment to our workforce, and we urge our employees to embrace this chance to secure their future and return to work,” the statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency said about 100,000 riders use bus and light rail services every weekday, a large proportion of whom earn lower incomes and are students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>VTA sued the union on the first day of the strike, alleging that the work stoppage violated a no-strike clause in the bargaining agreement between the agency and ATU.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A county judge rejected VTA’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt the strike on March 17, but asked ATU to come back to court on Wednesday to argue why the strike is not a violation of the agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>After months of negotiations over a new contract \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031392/south-bay-public-medical-workers-planning-strike-over-contract-talks\">failed to produce a deal\u003c/a>, a group of Santa Clara County medical workers began a three-day strike on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of employees of the county’s hospital and public health system started picketing outside of Valley Medical Center in San José early Monday morning, chanting and waving signs as traffic whizzed by on Bascom Avenue, with some drivers offering up honks of support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The workers are part of a group of roughly 200 striking clinical lab scientists, microbiologists and medical lab technicians represented by the Engineers and Scientists of California Local 20. The union’s members work at the Santa Clara County-run Valley Medical Center and O’Connor Hospital in San José, as well as St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy and county public health labs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m proud that we’ve come together to fight for our rights,” Jenny Gargarita, a clinical laboratory scientist, said Monday while picketing outside the hospital. She said her group doesn’t feel seen or heard and is disappointed negotiations have reached this point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was really hoping that our union and the county could come to a fair agreement,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032772\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032772\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-17-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-17-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-17-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-17-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-17-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-17-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-17-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenny Gargarita, a clinical lab scientist, poses for a photo at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San José on March 24, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Union leaders said they are holding the unfair labor practice strike because the county is negotiating in “bad faith” during months-long talks that began in July. Their previous contract expired in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are dedicated public servants who provide critical, laboratory-related services primarily for our hospital system. And we look forward to being able to reach an agreement with them,” County Executive James Williams said Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county and union have agreed to many items of the contract so far, but the two parties are divided over two key issues, including whether the union will be allowed to hold any future “sympathy strikes” in solidarity with other unions that might go on strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union officials said the county wants to strip that right from them and has proposed a broader array of “management rights” that workers are worried would allow the county to shift workers from one location to another without their input.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032774\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12032774 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-35-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-35-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-35-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-35-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-35-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-35-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-35-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roughly 200 lab techs and other medical workers in the South Bay began a three-day strike over stalled contract negotiations at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San José on March 24, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The county has not been clear about what their intentions are with management rights,” Loan Yumul, a nuclear medicine technologist, said Monday. “And our concern is being transferred from one facility to the next and not having proper training or different equipment … So if we’re unfamiliar with it, it could be a detriment to our patients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams said the county has “not made a proposal to float or shift staff from one facility to another” and that his team welcomes the union’s engagement on any specific concerns they have over the language being proposed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All we’re seeking is very routine standard management rights and no-strikes language that ESC itself has agreed to with many, many, other public and private hospital systems,” Williams said Monday.[aside postID=news_12032652 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTAStrikeDay2_GC-6_qed-1020x680.jpg']“Our hospitals provide essential life-saving services and it’s vital that we have assurance that when entering into a contract with our labor partner that we know that there’s going to be labor peace for the duration of that contract,” Williams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest public offer from the county is from December, which was rejected by the union. It included a total 15.85% wage increase for the union members over a four-year contract term, with 5% in the first year, followed by 4% in the second year, and 3% in each of the last two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jay Sandhu, a clinical laboratory scientist and a part of the union’s negotiating team, said the county has tied its current wage increase proposals to the proposed changes about strikes and management rights, pushing the union into its first strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been going back and forth, back and forth with the county. And we just want to have a fair negotiation,” Sandhu said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union and the county have, as recently as last week, been in confidential mediation for the ongoing negotiations, but both Williams and union representatives said Monday they are waiting for the other side to restart negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032773\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032773\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-20-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-20-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-20-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-20-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-20-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-20-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-20-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Santa Clara Valley Medical Center campus in San José on March 24, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The first day of the strike for county medical workers also marked the beginning of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">third straight week of a strike by transit workers\u003c/a> employed by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority over stalled contract negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams declined to comment on whether the VTA strike has affected the way his team is handling negotiations with the medical workers group, noting that union and labor negotiation situations are unique.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandhu said he hopes the strike his union is holding right now will help the county see how crucial employees like him are to the overall health care system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We may be a small group,” Sandhu said, “but what we do touches every aspect of patient care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After months of negotiations over a new contract \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031392/south-bay-public-medical-workers-planning-strike-over-contract-talks\">failed to produce a deal\u003c/a>, a group of Santa Clara County medical workers began a three-day strike on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of employees of the county’s hospital and public health system started picketing outside of Valley Medical Center in San José early Monday morning, chanting and waving signs as traffic whizzed by on Bascom Avenue, with some drivers offering up honks of support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The workers are part of a group of roughly 200 striking clinical lab scientists, microbiologists and medical lab technicians represented by the Engineers and Scientists of California Local 20. The union’s members work at the Santa Clara County-run Valley Medical Center and O’Connor Hospital in San José, as well as St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy and county public health labs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m proud that we’ve come together to fight for our rights,” Jenny Gargarita, a clinical laboratory scientist, said Monday while picketing outside the hospital. She said her group doesn’t feel seen or heard and is disappointed negotiations have reached this point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was really hoping that our union and the county could come to a fair agreement,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032772\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032772\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-17-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-17-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-17-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-17-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-17-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-17-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-17-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenny Gargarita, a clinical lab scientist, poses for a photo at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San José on March 24, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Union leaders said they are holding the unfair labor practice strike because the county is negotiating in “bad faith” during months-long talks that began in July. Their previous contract expired in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are dedicated public servants who provide critical, laboratory-related services primarily for our hospital system. And we look forward to being able to reach an agreement with them,” County Executive James Williams said Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county and union have agreed to many items of the contract so far, but the two parties are divided over two key issues, including whether the union will be allowed to hold any future “sympathy strikes” in solidarity with other unions that might go on strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union officials said the county wants to strip that right from them and has proposed a broader array of “management rights” that workers are worried would allow the county to shift workers from one location to another without their input.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032774\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12032774 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-35-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-35-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-35-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-35-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-35-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-35-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-35-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roughly 200 lab techs and other medical workers in the South Bay began a three-day strike over stalled contract negotiations at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San José on March 24, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The county has not been clear about what their intentions are with management rights,” Loan Yumul, a nuclear medicine technologist, said Monday. “And our concern is being transferred from one facility to the next and not having proper training or different equipment … So if we’re unfamiliar with it, it could be a detriment to our patients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams said the county has “not made a proposal to float or shift staff from one facility to another” and that his team welcomes the union’s engagement on any specific concerns they have over the language being proposed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All we’re seeking is very routine standard management rights and no-strikes language that ESC itself has agreed to with many, many, other public and private hospital systems,” Williams said Monday.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Our hospitals provide essential life-saving services and it’s vital that we have assurance that when entering into a contract with our labor partner that we know that there’s going to be labor peace for the duration of that contract,” Williams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest public offer from the county is from December, which was rejected by the union. It included a total 15.85% wage increase for the union members over a four-year contract term, with 5% in the first year, followed by 4% in the second year, and 3% in each of the last two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jay Sandhu, a clinical laboratory scientist and a part of the union’s negotiating team, said the county has tied its current wage increase proposals to the proposed changes about strikes and management rights, pushing the union into its first strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been going back and forth, back and forth with the county. And we just want to have a fair negotiation,” Sandhu said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union and the county have, as recently as last week, been in confidential mediation for the ongoing negotiations, but both Williams and union representatives said Monday they are waiting for the other side to restart negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032773\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032773\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-20-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-20-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-20-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-20-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-20-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-20-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20240324_SANTACLARAMEDICALSTRIKE_GC-20-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Santa Clara Valley Medical Center campus in San José on March 24, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The first day of the strike for county medical workers also marked the beginning of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">third straight week of a strike by transit workers\u003c/a> employed by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority over stalled contract negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams declined to comment on whether the VTA strike has affected the way his team is handling negotiations with the medical workers group, noting that union and labor negotiation situations are unique.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandhu said he hopes the strike his union is holding right now will help the county see how crucial employees like him are to the overall health care system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We may be a small group,” Sandhu said, “but what we do touches every aspect of patient care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is offering striking transit workers 11% raises over three years, a half a percentage point increase from the agency’s prior bid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a press conference Sunday following a special-closed session meeting, VTA Board Chair and Campbell Mayor Sergio Lopez said the offer would not include overtime pay for sick and injury time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is, as I shared, a significant stretch of our resources,” said Lopez. “But we are committed to our riders and to the public, to getting to resolution, to ending the strike, and getting riders back on the road.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raj Singh, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, was pessimistic about the offer’s chance with workers, describing it as a meager wage increase accompanied by several steps backward in others areas — including overtime, as well as what he called a verbal promise from VTA leadership to include a memo containing assurances that the agency will not discipline or sue striking workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A VTA spokesperson confirmed to KQED that the memo was not included in the Sunday offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The agency has been saying that the ATU leadership is the one that’s holding … negotiations hostage,” Singh said. “So we were going to remove ourselves from the conversation and let the members decide.”[aside postID=news_12031623 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTAStrikeDay2_GC-7_qed-1020x680.jpg']The more than 1,500 transit workers were originally slated to vote on the VTA’s previous offer — 10.5% raises over three years — on Sunday, but Singh said the agency asked them to hold off after it decided to hold the special meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He criticized the fairness of wages at VTA, saying supervisors and upper management are “essentially making double what our employees are making.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But VTA officials said their latest offer could cause financial pain for the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whichever number, whether a previous offer or now at 11 [percent], there’s going to have to be difficult conversations about our fiscal responsibility to maintain service and protect that for our riders while also making sure that we’re offering a fair package,” Lopez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said the union last offered to accept 15% wage increases over three years, but said “the agency would not budge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is offering striking transit workers 11% raises over three years, a half a percentage point increase from the agency’s prior bid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a press conference Sunday following a special-closed session meeting, VTA Board Chair and Campbell Mayor Sergio Lopez said the offer would not include overtime pay for sick and injury time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is, as I shared, a significant stretch of our resources,” said Lopez. “But we are committed to our riders and to the public, to getting to resolution, to ending the strike, and getting riders back on the road.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raj Singh, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, was pessimistic about the offer’s chance with workers, describing it as a meager wage increase accompanied by several steps backward in others areas — including overtime, as well as what he called a verbal promise from VTA leadership to include a memo containing assurances that the agency will not discipline or sue striking workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A VTA spokesperson confirmed to KQED that the memo was not included in the Sunday offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The agency has been saying that the ATU leadership is the one that’s holding … negotiations hostage,” Singh said. “So we were going to remove ourselves from the conversation and let the members decide.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The more than 1,500 transit workers were originally slated to vote on the VTA’s previous offer — 10.5% raises over three years — on Sunday, but Singh said the agency asked them to hold off after it decided to hold the special meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He criticized the fairness of wages at VTA, saying supervisors and upper management are “essentially making double what our employees are making.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But VTA officials said their latest offer could cause financial pain for the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whichever number, whether a previous offer or now at 11 [percent], there’s going to have to be difficult conversations about our fiscal responsibility to maintain service and protect that for our riders while also making sure that we’re offering a fair package,” Lopez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said the union last offered to accept 15% wage increases over three years, but said “the agency would not budge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "VTA’s Striking Workers Postpone Contract Vote as Agency Plans Sunday Meeting",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 6:20 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Striking transit workers in the South Bay will postpone a planned Saturday vote on a new contract offer from the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, after the agency asked union leaders to hold off until a special closed-session meeting could be held Sunday, according to union officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA Board of Directors will meet Sunday at 10 a.m. to further discuss the ongoing negotiations with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, according to the union’s president, Raj Singh. The meeting was announced after ATU leaders encouraged their members to vote against the latest contract offer from VTA negotiators. It could signal an 11th-hour attempt from VTA leaders to avoid allowing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">the historic strike\u003c/a> by more than 1,500 bus drivers, train operators and maintenance workers to extend into a third week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first two weeks now, essentially, the agency showed no urgency in trying to resolve the matter,” Singh said. “And so the fact that they’re [calling a special meeting] now, I hope it’s a step in the right direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the VTA confirmed the planned meeting late Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier Friday, the VTA said that it had revised its previous offer to ATU, whose members have been off the job since March 10 over stalled contract negotiations, affecting tens of thousands of people who rely daily on transit in the South Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA’s current offer to the union is a contract proposal that includes 10.5% raises over three years, with 4% in the first year, followed by 3%, and 3.5% in the subsequent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That proposal represents a 1.5% increase from the VTA’s previous offer of 9%, and comes a day after the VTA \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032271/vta-strike-stretches-into-11th-day-agency-says-progress-being-made-in-talks\">told KQED\u003c/a> progress was made in negotiations on Wednesday regarding other key sticking points, including tentative changes to arbitration when employees file grievances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030671\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030671\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Baypointe light rail platform in San José is vacant on Monday, March 10, 2025, the first day of a strike by the union representing VTA’s bus drivers and light rail train operators. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For several weeks, the union’s ask has been for an 18% raise over three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday afternoon, Singh said the union agreed to a compromise on arbitration, and feels the agency’s wage offer isn’t a fair one, pointing to the 4% annual raise that VTA General Manager Carolyn Gonot received in January. Singh indicated a 12% raise over three years would be something the union might accept.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it would be fair to give us essentially what they gave the general manager at least,” Singh said. “So at least seeing fours across the board would be fair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said the union has also asked the VTA to guarantee that no union workers or leaders will face discipline or civil charges for their participation in the strike, and asked that all workers in the union be immediately reinstated when the strike ends, including those on probation or in training. Singh said the VTA in its previous offer rejected those asks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear what specifics the board members will discuss Sunday, or what revised offer, if any, they will make to the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12031387 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy-1536x1024.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier Friday, the agency said its latest offer “is highly competitive and fair,” and reiterated that VTA operators are the second-highest paid among Bay Area transit workers, and said its mechanics are the highest paid in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Throughout lengthy negotiations, VTA has gone above and beyond to accommodate union demands, including agreeing to the union’s proposed arbitration language and significantly enhancing dental coverage at the union’s request,” the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter posted on its website earlier Friday, ATU’s leadership had notified members of the previously planned special membership meeting on Saturday, with voting also scheduled to take place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union leadership said it held two meetings with VTA officials on Thursday, and recommended that its members vote against the current contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Management made it clear they would not offer more than a total 10.5% increase, justifying their position by citing reasons such as ATU’s highest offer in the past decade, claims that we are ‘uneducated workers,’ budget constraints, and the potential need to cut services,” the letter said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since we have once again hit a deadlock and the agency refuses to budge, we are putting the offer to a membership vote. However, let there be no misunderstanding – your leadership has NOT agreed to this proposal. Your Negotiations Team is strongly recommending a UNANIMOUS NO VOTE,” the letter concluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tens of thousands of people use VTA buses and light rail trains every day, according to the agency, with roughly 100,000 riders on weekdays, including large proportions of students and low-income earners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union has said in previous statements that its members were on strike due to what it perceived as the agency wasting time in six months of negotiations that began in August, as well as concerns over arbitration, extended leave for injury or illness, and respect and fairness for its members’ work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stacey Hendler Ross, a spokesperson for VTA, said earlier on Friday that the agency hopes union members will approve the new offer and choose to end the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“VTA is trying to make incremental movement over the wage proposal just to get people back to work even though the agency is headed into a $40 million deficit for next year,” Hendler Ross said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can only hope that workers will see this as the fair and competitive offer that it is and come back to work so we can get our passengers back on the road,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh, on Friday afternoon, seemed unconvinced about the agency’s inability to up its offer. “There is plenty of cushion in the budget for them to offer something more,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030673\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030673\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Striking VTA workers picket acknowledge a passing honking car outside the agency’s headquarters on North First Street in San José on March 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The agency and the union have traded sharp rhetoric during the now 12-day strike, including blaming one another for the work stoppage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ATU leadership has held its members and the riders who depend on public transportation for their livelihood hostage for two weeks,” the VTA said in its statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union can choose to end the strike and allow employees back to work at any time, including before a new contract is made official.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 6:20 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Striking transit workers in the South Bay will postpone a planned Saturday vote on a new contract offer from the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, after the agency asked union leaders to hold off until a special closed-session meeting could be held Sunday, according to union officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA Board of Directors will meet Sunday at 10 a.m. to further discuss the ongoing negotiations with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, according to the union’s president, Raj Singh. The meeting was announced after ATU leaders encouraged their members to vote against the latest contract offer from VTA negotiators. It could signal an 11th-hour attempt from VTA leaders to avoid allowing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">the historic strike\u003c/a> by more than 1,500 bus drivers, train operators and maintenance workers to extend into a third week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first two weeks now, essentially, the agency showed no urgency in trying to resolve the matter,” Singh said. “And so the fact that they’re [calling a special meeting] now, I hope it’s a step in the right direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the VTA confirmed the planned meeting late Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier Friday, the VTA said that it had revised its previous offer to ATU, whose members have been off the job since March 10 over stalled contract negotiations, affecting tens of thousands of people who rely daily on transit in the South Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA’s current offer to the union is a contract proposal that includes 10.5% raises over three years, with 4% in the first year, followed by 3%, and 3.5% in the subsequent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That proposal represents a 1.5% increase from the VTA’s previous offer of 9%, and comes a day after the VTA \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032271/vta-strike-stretches-into-11th-day-agency-says-progress-being-made-in-talks\">told KQED\u003c/a> progress was made in negotiations on Wednesday regarding other key sticking points, including tentative changes to arbitration when employees file grievances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030671\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030671\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Baypointe light rail platform in San José is vacant on Monday, March 10, 2025, the first day of a strike by the union representing VTA’s bus drivers and light rail train operators. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For several weeks, the union’s ask has been for an 18% raise over three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday afternoon, Singh said the union agreed to a compromise on arbitration, and feels the agency’s wage offer isn’t a fair one, pointing to the 4% annual raise that VTA General Manager Carolyn Gonot received in January. Singh indicated a 12% raise over three years would be something the union might accept.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it would be fair to give us essentially what they gave the general manager at least,” Singh said. “So at least seeing fours across the board would be fair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said the union has also asked the VTA to guarantee that no union workers or leaders will face discipline or civil charges for their participation in the strike, and asked that all workers in the union be immediately reinstated when the strike ends, including those on probation or in training. Singh said the VTA in its previous offer rejected those asks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear what specifics the board members will discuss Sunday, or what revised offer, if any, they will make to the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier Friday, the agency said its latest offer “is highly competitive and fair,” and reiterated that VTA operators are the second-highest paid among Bay Area transit workers, and said its mechanics are the highest paid in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Throughout lengthy negotiations, VTA has gone above and beyond to accommodate union demands, including agreeing to the union’s proposed arbitration language and significantly enhancing dental coverage at the union’s request,” the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter posted on its website earlier Friday, ATU’s leadership had notified members of the previously planned special membership meeting on Saturday, with voting also scheduled to take place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union leadership said it held two meetings with VTA officials on Thursday, and recommended that its members vote against the current contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Management made it clear they would not offer more than a total 10.5% increase, justifying their position by citing reasons such as ATU’s highest offer in the past decade, claims that we are ‘uneducated workers,’ budget constraints, and the potential need to cut services,” the letter said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since we have once again hit a deadlock and the agency refuses to budge, we are putting the offer to a membership vote. However, let there be no misunderstanding – your leadership has NOT agreed to this proposal. Your Negotiations Team is strongly recommending a UNANIMOUS NO VOTE,” the letter concluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tens of thousands of people use VTA buses and light rail trains every day, according to the agency, with roughly 100,000 riders on weekdays, including large proportions of students and low-income earners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union has said in previous statements that its members were on strike due to what it perceived as the agency wasting time in six months of negotiations that began in August, as well as concerns over arbitration, extended leave for injury or illness, and respect and fairness for its members’ work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stacey Hendler Ross, a spokesperson for VTA, said earlier on Friday that the agency hopes union members will approve the new offer and choose to end the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“VTA is trying to make incremental movement over the wage proposal just to get people back to work even though the agency is headed into a $40 million deficit for next year,” Hendler Ross said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can only hope that workers will see this as the fair and competitive offer that it is and come back to work so we can get our passengers back on the road,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh, on Friday afternoon, seemed unconvinced about the agency’s inability to up its offer. “There is plenty of cushion in the budget for them to offer something more,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030673\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030673\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Striking VTA workers picket acknowledge a passing honking car outside the agency’s headquarters on North First Street in San José on March 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The agency and the union have traded sharp rhetoric during the now 12-day strike, including blaming one another for the work stoppage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ATU leadership has held its members and the riders who depend on public transportation for their livelihood hostage for two weeks,” the VTA said in its statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union can choose to end the strike and allow employees back to work at any time, including before a new contract is made official.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>National Labor Relations Board investigators allege that outdoor equipment retailer REI illegally excluded unionized employees in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/berkeley\">Berkeley\u003c/a> and elsewhere from pay increases and bonuses given to non-unionized workers, according to a new complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint, issued Wednesday by the NLRB’s regional director in Oakland, means investigators have found enough evidence to support charges that REI withheld those benefits from hundreds of employees at nine stores to discourage union membership. For years, the company has regularly rewarded workers with annual merit raises and bonuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s vindication, vindication that the workers deserve this pay,” said Jim Araby, who directs strategic campaigns for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5, which represents REI employees in Berkeley. “It is a violation of the status quo to not give a benefit to workers just because they organized, where all the other workers in the REI co-op have received this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By law, employers are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11940014/inside-the-long-uphill-battle-to-unionize-workers-at-one-bay-area-nonprofit\">prohibited from retaliating against workers\u003c/a> for coming together to try to improve job conditions and from unilaterally changing the terms of employment while bargaining with a union for an initial contract. Of the 11 REI stores that have unionized since 2022, not one has reached a labor contract with the retailer, which operates more than 180 stores in the U.S. and has more than 16,000 employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A company spokesperson said REI will continue to bargain in good faith with the stores now represented by UFCW locals. The NLRB complaint covers the first two locations that successfully unionized in New York City and Berkeley, plus seven others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Federal law requires us to bargain in good faith on all aspects of the employment agreement, including pay and benefits, rather than making unilateral changes. We’re actively negotiating these topics with the union, so no pay changes have been implemented — there’s nothing to ‘withhold,’” the spokesperson wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12031623 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTAStrikeDay2_GC-7_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A hearing before an NLRB administrative law judge is scheduled to begin Dec. 9 unless the company settles the case before then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint comes after REI, which brands itself as a consumer co-op, has faced dozens of accusations of unfair labor practices during contract negotiations that workers say have moved at a glacial pace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023, REI hired the law firm Morgan Lewis to represent the company in bargaining and against charges of unfair labor practices before the NLRB. Morgan Lewis is also representing SpaceX in a separate case \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101907450/lawsuits-against-national-labor-relations-board-could-cloud-future-of-organized-labor\">challenging the constitutionality of the 90-year-old agency in federal court\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The REI complaint also comes at a tumultuous time for the NLRB. Last month, President Trump — himself a one-time Morgan Lewis client — \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/01/28/nx-s1-5277103/nlrb-trump-wilcox-abruzzo-democrats-labor\">fired Democratic board member Gwynne Wilcox\u003c/a> before her term had expired, giving him three vacant seats to fill on the five-member board, which essentially functions as a panel of appeals judges for workers’ complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Wilcox sued, a federal judge reinstated her on March 6, finding that the president didn’t have the authority to remove her without cause. The administration appealed that ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump’s actions and the barrage of litigation by employers threatening the agency’s existence could make it more challenging for workers to assert their rights to organize, according to Wilma Liebman, who chaired the NLRB during President Obama’s administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12032232 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2201544551-1020x729.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very volatile period in the law and in government that, I think, doesn’t bode well for the enforcement of workers’ rights,” said Liebman, an adjunct law professor at New York University who also served on the NLRB under Presidents Bush and Clinton. “Hopefully, the system works well enough that a case like this [on REI] can proceed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Samuel Wirt, who works at the REI Berkeley store helping customers select camping and climbing gear, said he hopes the complaint by the agency’s investigators pressures the company to live up to its co-op values.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unionized employees are asking customer members to reject candidates to REI’s board, which oversees executive decisions, in protest, Wirt said. The company’s board election, which started earlier this month, ends May 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they’re not interested in doing the right thing by us, then we’re going to make them do the right thing by us,” said Wirt, 35, a bargaining committee member. “It’s our place as workers to assert that we’re worth something.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>National Labor Relations Board investigators allege that outdoor equipment retailer REI illegally excluded unionized employees in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/berkeley\">Berkeley\u003c/a> and elsewhere from pay increases and bonuses given to non-unionized workers, according to a new complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint, issued Wednesday by the NLRB’s regional director in Oakland, means investigators have found enough evidence to support charges that REI withheld those benefits from hundreds of employees at nine stores to discourage union membership. For years, the company has regularly rewarded workers with annual merit raises and bonuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s vindication, vindication that the workers deserve this pay,” said Jim Araby, who directs strategic campaigns for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5, which represents REI employees in Berkeley. “It is a violation of the status quo to not give a benefit to workers just because they organized, where all the other workers in the REI co-op have received this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By law, employers are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11940014/inside-the-long-uphill-battle-to-unionize-workers-at-one-bay-area-nonprofit\">prohibited from retaliating against workers\u003c/a> for coming together to try to improve job conditions and from unilaterally changing the terms of employment while bargaining with a union for an initial contract. Of the 11 REI stores that have unionized since 2022, not one has reached a labor contract with the retailer, which operates more than 180 stores in the U.S. and has more than 16,000 employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A company spokesperson said REI will continue to bargain in good faith with the stores now represented by UFCW locals. The NLRB complaint covers the first two locations that successfully unionized in New York City and Berkeley, plus seven others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Federal law requires us to bargain in good faith on all aspects of the employment agreement, including pay and benefits, rather than making unilateral changes. We’re actively negotiating these topics with the union, so no pay changes have been implemented — there’s nothing to ‘withhold,’” the spokesperson wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A hearing before an NLRB administrative law judge is scheduled to begin Dec. 9 unless the company settles the case before then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint comes after REI, which brands itself as a consumer co-op, has faced dozens of accusations of unfair labor practices during contract negotiations that workers say have moved at a glacial pace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023, REI hired the law firm Morgan Lewis to represent the company in bargaining and against charges of unfair labor practices before the NLRB. Morgan Lewis is also representing SpaceX in a separate case \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101907450/lawsuits-against-national-labor-relations-board-could-cloud-future-of-organized-labor\">challenging the constitutionality of the 90-year-old agency in federal court\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The REI complaint also comes at a tumultuous time for the NLRB. Last month, President Trump — himself a one-time Morgan Lewis client — \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/01/28/nx-s1-5277103/nlrb-trump-wilcox-abruzzo-democrats-labor\">fired Democratic board member Gwynne Wilcox\u003c/a> before her term had expired, giving him three vacant seats to fill on the five-member board, which essentially functions as a panel of appeals judges for workers’ complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Wilcox sued, a federal judge reinstated her on March 6, finding that the president didn’t have the authority to remove her without cause. The administration appealed that ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump’s actions and the barrage of litigation by employers threatening the agency’s existence could make it more challenging for workers to assert their rights to organize, according to Wilma Liebman, who chaired the NLRB during President Obama’s administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very volatile period in the law and in government that, I think, doesn’t bode well for the enforcement of workers’ rights,” said Liebman, an adjunct law professor at New York University who also served on the NLRB under Presidents Bush and Clinton. “Hopefully, the system works well enough that a case like this [on REI] can proceed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Samuel Wirt, who works at the REI Berkeley store helping customers select camping and climbing gear, said he hopes the complaint by the agency’s investigators pressures the company to live up to its co-op values.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unionized employees are asking customer members to reject candidates to REI’s board, which oversees executive decisions, in protest, Wirt said. The company’s board election, which started earlier this month, ends May 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they’re not interested in doing the right thing by us, then we’re going to make them do the right thing by us,” said Wirt, 35, a bargaining committee member. “It’s our place as workers to assert that we’re worth something.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "VTA Strike Stretches Into 11th Day, Agency Says Progress Being Made in Talks",
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"content": "\u003cp>As the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">historic strike\u003c/a> by Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers stretches into its 11th day, the transit agency said progress is being made at the negotiating table on key sticking points, and talks were continuing Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 1,500 bus drivers and train operators, as well as maintenance workers and dispatchers represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, have been off the job since March 10 over contract talks that stalled early this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strike has halted bus and light rail service throughout Santa Clara County, forcing tens of thousands of daily riders to find alternate transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a VTA official said talks went well on Wednesday after negotiators for the agency and the union met for more than seven hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We feel like we made some progress,” Stacey Hendler Ross, an agency spokesperson, said Thursday morning. “There was a compromise on what the union said was their biggest issue, and that was the arbitration issue. So that hopefully has been settled, and they’re moving on to other issues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union President Raj Singh did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout the strike, Singh and other union members have said that one of the major issues for the labor group is the way arbitration is handled with the agency when a worker files a grievance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union alleged the agency held too much power to unilaterally avoid or delay going to an arbitrator to decide how some of those cases would be resolved and had proposed changes to shift the balance of power, which the agency had resisted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hendler Ross declined to share specifics on the compromise that was reached, noting that it’s all tentative until both parties sign a new contract.[aside postID=news_12031387 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-23-KQED-1020x680.jpg']The union also previously bristled at proposed changes from VTA to reduce long-term injury or illness leave from two years to one, and the two sides have consistently remained far apart on wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency’s last publicized offer to the union was for 9% raises over three years, with 4% granted in the first year of the contract, followed by 3% and 2% subsequently. The union’s most recent publicized ask was for 18% raises over the same time period, with 6% in each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some of the talks last week between the agency and the union included a mediator, Hendler Ross said the talks on Wednesday and talks that were scheduled to begin at noon on Thursday are standard negotiations without mediators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union held a rally on Monday afternoon with other labor groups, urging VTA to come back to the negotiating table after written proposals were exchanged over the weekend. Singh said the union waited for a call from the agency all day Monday and Tuesday but didn’t receive one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said Tuesday afternoon he was concerned about the agency’s apparent “lack of urgency” while the strike continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday evening, the agency issued a statement saying it “is committed to moving beyond the rhetoric to focus on constructive actions to finalize a contract.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency also alleged the strike violated the no-strike clause in the bargaining agreement between the union and VTA and filed a lawsuit on March 10 asking a judge to issue a temporary restraining order to force workers back to their jobs while negotiations continued. A county judge \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031632/vtas-legal-challenge-ongoing-transit-strike-hits-snag\">shot that request down on Monday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hendler Ross said Thursday that the VTA always has hope that when the agency and union meet to negotiate, it will result in something good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to hold out that hope because we want to get our workers back to work, back on the road, so we can get our passengers where they need to go,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The VTA and its largest labor union resumed negotiations Wednesday, and a spokesperson for the South Bay transit agency said progress was made during the talks, with more scheduled for Thursday. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">historic strike\u003c/a> by Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers stretches into its 11th day, the transit agency said progress is being made at the negotiating table on key sticking points, and talks were continuing Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 1,500 bus drivers and train operators, as well as maintenance workers and dispatchers represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, have been off the job since March 10 over contract talks that stalled early this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strike has halted bus and light rail service throughout Santa Clara County, forcing tens of thousands of daily riders to find alternate transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a VTA official said talks went well on Wednesday after negotiators for the agency and the union met for more than seven hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We feel like we made some progress,” Stacey Hendler Ross, an agency spokesperson, said Thursday morning. “There was a compromise on what the union said was their biggest issue, and that was the arbitration issue. So that hopefully has been settled, and they’re moving on to other issues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union President Raj Singh did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout the strike, Singh and other union members have said that one of the major issues for the labor group is the way arbitration is handled with the agency when a worker files a grievance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union alleged the agency held too much power to unilaterally avoid or delay going to an arbitrator to decide how some of those cases would be resolved and had proposed changes to shift the balance of power, which the agency had resisted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hendler Ross declined to share specifics on the compromise that was reached, noting that it’s all tentative until both parties sign a new contract.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The union also previously bristled at proposed changes from VTA to reduce long-term injury or illness leave from two years to one, and the two sides have consistently remained far apart on wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency’s last publicized offer to the union was for 9% raises over three years, with 4% granted in the first year of the contract, followed by 3% and 2% subsequently. The union’s most recent publicized ask was for 18% raises over the same time period, with 6% in each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some of the talks last week between the agency and the union included a mediator, Hendler Ross said the talks on Wednesday and talks that were scheduled to begin at noon on Thursday are standard negotiations without mediators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union held a rally on Monday afternoon with other labor groups, urging VTA to come back to the negotiating table after written proposals were exchanged over the weekend. Singh said the union waited for a call from the agency all day Monday and Tuesday but didn’t receive one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said Tuesday afternoon he was concerned about the agency’s apparent “lack of urgency” while the strike continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday evening, the agency issued a statement saying it “is committed to moving beyond the rhetoric to focus on constructive actions to finalize a contract.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency also alleged the strike violated the no-strike clause in the bargaining agreement between the union and VTA and filed a lawsuit on March 10 asking a judge to issue a temporary restraining order to force workers back to their jobs while negotiations continued. A county judge \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031632/vtas-legal-challenge-ongoing-transit-strike-hits-snag\">shot that request down on Monday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hendler Ross said Thursday that the VTA always has hope that when the agency and union meet to negotiate, it will result in something good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to hold out that hope because we want to get our workers back to work, back on the road, so we can get our passengers where they need to go,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "VTA’s Legal Challenge to Ongoing Transit Strike Dealt Major Blow",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 7:50 p.m. Monday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authotrity’s legal challenge aiming to put a stop to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">ongoing strike by transit workers\u003c/a> in the South Bay has been dealt a major blow by a judge, according to newly filed court documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an order filed with the Santa Clara County Superior Court Monday, Judge Daniel T. Nishigaya rejected VTA’s request for a temporary restraining order to immediately halt the historic strike by more than 1,500 bus drivers and train operators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge allowed the case to proceed and set a court date for March 26, when the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, whose workers have been on strike since March 10, must argue why the court should not issue an injunction to halt the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the denial of the temporary restraining order means the courts are unlikely to intervene in the labor dispute before March 26, by which time the union and the VTA may have reached a new contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030759/vta-sues-to-end-historic-south-bay-transit-workers-strike\">filed its complaint\u003c/a> a week ago, seeking to force workers back to their jobs while negotiations over a new labor contract continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA has since submitted other supporting filings that helped reveal some of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031387/newsom-should-intervene-in-vta-strike-expert-says\">apparent bad blood\u003c/a> between the agency and its largest labor group, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sunday, Nishigaya rejected the VTA’s initial filing on technical grounds, stating it did not comply with state court rules. He then allowed the VTA to resubmit its request for a restraining order, which he denied Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So unfortunately for our passengers, that does not allow for the workers to come back and therefore service to be reinstated,” Greg Richardson, VTA deputy general manager, said Monday night during a news conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richardson said he’s hopeful that a resolution to the contract dispute could be settled before the March 26 court date, though he acknowledged the potential for the strike to drag on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030770\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030770\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dafina Cozine, a bus operator, joins a strike with hundreds of Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers, represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, on N. First Street, in San José, demanding a better contract and an increase in wages on March 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Raj Singh, the union’s president, said members are frustrated VTA appears more focused on trying to win a court fight instead of working out a deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They really haven’t made any efforts to resolve this issue,” he said. “They keep either going back to court or they’re hoping that the governor’s office is going to intervene.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency and the ATU have been negotiating since August over a new contract, with the most recent contract expiring on March 3. The union \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030584/santa-clara-county-transit-grinds-to-a-halt-as-vta-workers-strike\">began striking\u003c/a> on March 10, grinding the agency’s main services to a halt and forcing tens of thousands of riders to find other ways to get around, including walking or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">paying more\u003c/a> money for rideshares like Lyft and Uber.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union leaders say their biggest aims are changing how arbitration is used when worker grievances are filed with the agency, as well as opposing proposed changes from VTA to reduce long-term injury or illness leave from two years to one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12031268 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00008-KQED-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency and the union also remain very far apart on wages, with VTA offering the union members 9% raises over three years, and the union asking for 18% raises over the same period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After striking with no talks for several days last week, the union and VTA met with mediators on Thursday and Friday, as well as over the weekend, but no resolution was reached, according to both ATU and the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the talks over the weekend were “productive and promising, but unfortunately at the end there was really no resolution to any of the issues that are still outstanding,” Richardson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do think things are closer than most people want to believe, we’ve just got to get it across the finish line,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Saturday, VTA’s General Manager Carolyn Gonot wrote to Gov. Gavin Newsom, asking him to intervene by appointing a board of investigation to look into the issues in the negotiations. A labor expert interviewed by KQED recommended \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031387/newsom-should-intervene-in-vta-strike-expert-says\">Newsom’s involvement\u003c/a> last week to help break the logjam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Governor’s intervention is clearly warranted here,” Gonot wrote to Newsom. “The abrupt disruption in service has created substantial uncertainty for VTA’s tens of thousands of daily riders and other members of the public who rely on VTA to transport their employees, students, and loved ones throughout the County and beyond.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment. Richardson said the response from Newsom’s office was to encourage both the agency and the union to continue to negotiate in good faith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under state law, the governor can appoint a board to investigate during a public transit strike or threat of a strike and have the board make a written report of the facts of the dispute within a week. The report would not contain recommendations and would be made public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated to clarify when the judge’s initial order was filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 7:50 p.m. Monday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authotrity’s legal challenge aiming to put a stop to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">ongoing strike by transit workers\u003c/a> in the South Bay has been dealt a major blow by a judge, according to newly filed court documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an order filed with the Santa Clara County Superior Court Monday, Judge Daniel T. Nishigaya rejected VTA’s request for a temporary restraining order to immediately halt the historic strike by more than 1,500 bus drivers and train operators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge allowed the case to proceed and set a court date for March 26, when the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, whose workers have been on strike since March 10, must argue why the court should not issue an injunction to halt the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the denial of the temporary restraining order means the courts are unlikely to intervene in the labor dispute before March 26, by which time the union and the VTA may have reached a new contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030759/vta-sues-to-end-historic-south-bay-transit-workers-strike\">filed its complaint\u003c/a> a week ago, seeking to force workers back to their jobs while negotiations over a new labor contract continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA has since submitted other supporting filings that helped reveal some of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031387/newsom-should-intervene-in-vta-strike-expert-says\">apparent bad blood\u003c/a> between the agency and its largest labor group, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sunday, Nishigaya rejected the VTA’s initial filing on technical grounds, stating it did not comply with state court rules. He then allowed the VTA to resubmit its request for a restraining order, which he denied Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So unfortunately for our passengers, that does not allow for the workers to come back and therefore service to be reinstated,” Greg Richardson, VTA deputy general manager, said Monday night during a news conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richardson said he’s hopeful that a resolution to the contract dispute could be settled before the March 26 court date, though he acknowledged the potential for the strike to drag on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030770\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030770\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dafina Cozine, a bus operator, joins a strike with hundreds of Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers, represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, on N. First Street, in San José, demanding a better contract and an increase in wages on March 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Raj Singh, the union’s president, said members are frustrated VTA appears more focused on trying to win a court fight instead of working out a deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They really haven’t made any efforts to resolve this issue,” he said. “They keep either going back to court or they’re hoping that the governor’s office is going to intervene.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency and the ATU have been negotiating since August over a new contract, with the most recent contract expiring on March 3. The union \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030584/santa-clara-county-transit-grinds-to-a-halt-as-vta-workers-strike\">began striking\u003c/a> on March 10, grinding the agency’s main services to a halt and forcing tens of thousands of riders to find other ways to get around, including walking or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">paying more\u003c/a> money for rideshares like Lyft and Uber.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union leaders say their biggest aims are changing how arbitration is used when worker grievances are filed with the agency, as well as opposing proposed changes from VTA to reduce long-term injury or illness leave from two years to one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency and the union also remain very far apart on wages, with VTA offering the union members 9% raises over three years, and the union asking for 18% raises over the same period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After striking with no talks for several days last week, the union and VTA met with mediators on Thursday and Friday, as well as over the weekend, but no resolution was reached, according to both ATU and the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the talks over the weekend were “productive and promising, but unfortunately at the end there was really no resolution to any of the issues that are still outstanding,” Richardson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do think things are closer than most people want to believe, we’ve just got to get it across the finish line,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Saturday, VTA’s General Manager Carolyn Gonot wrote to Gov. Gavin Newsom, asking him to intervene by appointing a board of investigation to look into the issues in the negotiations. A labor expert interviewed by KQED recommended \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031387/newsom-should-intervene-in-vta-strike-expert-says\">Newsom’s involvement\u003c/a> last week to help break the logjam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Governor’s intervention is clearly warranted here,” Gonot wrote to Newsom. “The abrupt disruption in service has created substantial uncertainty for VTA’s tens of thousands of daily riders and other members of the public who rely on VTA to transport their employees, students, and loved ones throughout the County and beyond.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment. Richardson said the response from Newsom’s office was to encourage both the agency and the union to continue to negotiate in good faith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under state law, the governor can appoint a board to investigate during a public transit strike or threat of a strike and have the board make a written report of the facts of the dispute within a week. The report would not contain recommendations and would be made public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated to clarify when the judge’s initial order was filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>As transit workers in the South Bay \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031387/newsom-should-intervene-in-vta-strike-expert-says\">continue their historic strike for a fifth straight day\u003c/a>, a unionized group of Santa Clara County medical employees is threatening a work stoppage of their own later this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of workers represented by the Engineers and Scientists of California Local 20 say they plan to hold an unfair labor practice strike from March 24 through 26 to push back against what they call “bad faith” negotiating by the county during long-running contract talks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union includes clinical lab scientists, microbiologists and medical lab technicians who work at the Santa Clara County-run Valley Medical Center and O’Connor Hospital in San José, as well as St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy, and county public health labs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our members have given us the mandate to insist on good faith bargaining so we can continue to deliver quality patient care and reject the County’s effort to forcibly waive our rights,” Jaspal Sandhu, a clinical lab scientist at Valley Medical, said in a statement from the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandhu is also a member of the negotiating team for the workers. “We remain committed to working towards reaching a fair agreement but will strike if necessary to try to put an end to the county’s bad faith,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union has been negotiating with the county for their next contract since July 2024, and their previous contract expired in September.[aside postID=news_12021981 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240613-REGIONALMED-JG-1-1020x680.jpg']The union alleges the county has refused to explain its proposals asking union members to give up the right to future negotiations over working conditions and the right to “take collective action to improve patient care,” the statement from the union said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union also said the county has threatened “to unilaterally impose these waivers of rights in violation of the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County, in a statement to KQED, said it is committed to finalizing a contract with the union that is fair for the workers, the county and its residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Reaching a financially sustainable agreement is critical given the current financial challenges facing local governments,” the statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two sides were having mediated negotiations on Friday, but it’s unclear if a deal is expected to be reached soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county said its health care system “will make the necessary preparations to ensure that all critical lab work can proceed so that our patients can receive the compassionate and critical care that they need” in the event of a strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joana Santos, a clinical lab scientist at St. Louise, said in the union statement that the county’s proposals could put “patient safety at risk by allowing managers to move workers between highly specialized worksites without their input.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our patients deserve better, for they trust us with our health,” Santos said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As transit workers in the South Bay \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031387/newsom-should-intervene-in-vta-strike-expert-says\">continue their historic strike for a fifth straight day\u003c/a>, a unionized group of Santa Clara County medical employees is threatening a work stoppage of their own later this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of workers represented by the Engineers and Scientists of California Local 20 say they plan to hold an unfair labor practice strike from March 24 through 26 to push back against what they call “bad faith” negotiating by the county during long-running contract talks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union includes clinical lab scientists, microbiologists and medical lab technicians who work at the Santa Clara County-run Valley Medical Center and O’Connor Hospital in San José, as well as St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy, and county public health labs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our members have given us the mandate to insist on good faith bargaining so we can continue to deliver quality patient care and reject the County’s effort to forcibly waive our rights,” Jaspal Sandhu, a clinical lab scientist at Valley Medical, said in a statement from the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandhu is also a member of the negotiating team for the workers. “We remain committed to working towards reaching a fair agreement but will strike if necessary to try to put an end to the county’s bad faith,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union has been negotiating with the county for their next contract since July 2024, and their previous contract expired in September.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The union alleges the county has refused to explain its proposals asking union members to give up the right to future negotiations over working conditions and the right to “take collective action to improve patient care,” the statement from the union said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union also said the county has threatened “to unilaterally impose these waivers of rights in violation of the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County, in a statement to KQED, said it is committed to finalizing a contract with the union that is fair for the workers, the county and its residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Reaching a financially sustainable agreement is critical given the current financial challenges facing local governments,” the statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two sides were having mediated negotiations on Friday, but it’s unclear if a deal is expected to be reached soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county said its health care system “will make the necessary preparations to ensure that all critical lab work can proceed so that our patients can receive the compassionate and critical care that they need” in the event of a strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joana Santos, a clinical lab scientist at St. Louise, said in the union statement that the county’s proposals could put “patient safety at risk by allowing managers to move workers between highly specialized worksites without their input.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our patients deserve better, for they trust us with our health,” Santos said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:45 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A flurry of court filings this week is revealing more of the apparent bad blood between the South Bay’s lead transit agency and its largest labor union amid a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">historic strike\u003c/a> over contract negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, which represents more than 1,500 bus drivers, train operators and maintenance workers, and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, have both accused the other of causing the strike and of bad-faith bargaining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, as bus and light rail services are at a standstill for a fifth straight day, forcing tens of thousands to find alternative ways to get around, some labor law experts say the courts may not be the best route to end the strike, and the governor should step in to move things along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The business of jaw-jawing and discussing is always better than warfare, which can be harmful to the public,” William B. Gould IV, a professor emeritus at Stanford Law School, said of the ongoing dispute. Gould was the former chair of the National Labor Relations Board from 1994 to 1998.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gould said he was “puzzled” that the governor hasn’t gotten involved yet to help mediate between the parties or, if necessary, to order a panel to do fact-finding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>VTA officials said they plan to pursue the governor’s involvement for a possible “cooling off period,” which could pause the strike while negotiations continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030673\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030673\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Striking VTA workers picket acknowledge a passing honking car outside the agency’s headquarters on North First Street in San José on March 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would think that the time is right and propitious for the governor to intervene,” Gould said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all of Thursday and part of Friday, the union and the agency met with a mediator for the first negotiations since the strike began, according to Raj Singh, the union president. However, a resolution was not able to be reached, and no further talks were scheduled as of Friday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA, in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030759/vta-sues-to-end-historic-south-bay-transit-workers-strike\">complaint filed in court late Monday night\u003c/a>, followed by several more supporting filings on Wednesday and Thursday, claims the union is violating the “no-strike clause” of a collective bargaining agreement between the agency and the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency alleges the union did not give VTA proper notice it wanted to end or change the agreement, which expired on March 3, and claims the no-strike conditions are in full effect for another year while negotiations for a new contract continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12029843 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240620-AffordableHousingPresser-10-BL_qed-1-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union, for its part, responded Thursday in a filing asking the judge to reject the VTA’s request. The union claims it’s clear the contract rules are no longer applicable because bargaining for a new contract had ended, as neither side budged off their last, best and final offers, and the union declared an impasse a few days before the strike began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law firm representing the VTA deferred comment to the agency, and the attorneys representing the ATU did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Both sides clearly have different interpretations of the contract language,” Greg Richardson, the deputy general manager for VTA, said Wednesday during a news conference. “Our belief is the current contract, although beyond its term, remains in full force during negotiations, and as such, the no strike clause is still in effect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richardson said the lawsuit is one more attempt the agency is making to try and get service back for the tens of thousands of riders who depend on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raj Singh, the president of ATU Local 265, said the lawsuit shows the “true colors” of the agency’s leadership and said VTA has “pushed us to this point” by wasting months of bargaining time ahead of the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of trying to resolve this immediately, they’re choosing to litigate and go the long route. I hope that the public is seeing this,” Singh said Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12022979\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12022979\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom addresses attendees during his inauguration for a second term at the Plaza de California in Sacramento on Jan. 6, 2023. VTA officials said they plan to pursue the governor’s involvement for a possible ‘cooling off period,’ which could pause the strike while negotiations continue. \u003ccite>(Rahul Lal/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The agency’s filings accuse the union of “bad faith behavior” at the bargaining table and said for negotiations to work, the union must “want to act in the interest of the great public they serve and understand that their public agency employer’s financial means are limited by available public tax dollars,” the filing said. “The sooner that ATU remembers this, the better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the legal fight plays out in the courts, one labor expert said a judge should not intervene in this dispute between workers and their employer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Ovetz, a senior political science lecturer at San José State University who teaches labor relations in the Master’s of Public Administration program, said there’s a long history of courts being used to break strikes and bust unions, especially before the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ultimately, the only real tool that workers have in asserting their interests is to stop working, to go on strike,” Ovetz said. “And so it would be very, very problematic for a judge to step in and then prevent them from being able to use that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ovetz said it seemed clear to him that negotiations had broken down when the strike was started, and he thinks a judge wouldn’t have a basis to grant an injunction to stop the strike. The best way to end the dispute is to simply return to bargaining, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Friday morning, the VTA said no date was set for an initial court hearing, and a judge was not assigned to the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:45 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A flurry of court filings this week is revealing more of the apparent bad blood between the South Bay’s lead transit agency and its largest labor union amid a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">historic strike\u003c/a> over contract negotiations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, which represents more than 1,500 bus drivers, train operators and maintenance workers, and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, have both accused the other of causing the strike and of bad-faith bargaining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, as bus and light rail services are at a standstill for a fifth straight day, forcing tens of thousands to find alternative ways to get around, some labor law experts say the courts may not be the best route to end the strike, and the governor should step in to move things along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The business of jaw-jawing and discussing is always better than warfare, which can be harmful to the public,” William B. Gould IV, a professor emeritus at Stanford Law School, said of the ongoing dispute. Gould was the former chair of the National Labor Relations Board from 1994 to 1998.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gould said he was “puzzled” that the governor hasn’t gotten involved yet to help mediate between the parties or, if necessary, to order a panel to do fact-finding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>VTA officials said they plan to pursue the governor’s involvement for a possible “cooling off period,” which could pause the strike while negotiations continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030673\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030673\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Striking VTA workers picket acknowledge a passing honking car outside the agency’s headquarters on North First Street in San José on March 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would think that the time is right and propitious for the governor to intervene,” Gould said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all of Thursday and part of Friday, the union and the agency met with a mediator for the first negotiations since the strike began, according to Raj Singh, the union president. However, a resolution was not able to be reached, and no further talks were scheduled as of Friday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA, in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030759/vta-sues-to-end-historic-south-bay-transit-workers-strike\">complaint filed in court late Monday night\u003c/a>, followed by several more supporting filings on Wednesday and Thursday, claims the union is violating the “no-strike clause” of a collective bargaining agreement between the agency and the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency alleges the union did not give VTA proper notice it wanted to end or change the agreement, which expired on March 3, and claims the no-strike conditions are in full effect for another year while negotiations for a new contract continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union, for its part, responded Thursday in a filing asking the judge to reject the VTA’s request. The union claims it’s clear the contract rules are no longer applicable because bargaining for a new contract had ended, as neither side budged off their last, best and final offers, and the union declared an impasse a few days before the strike began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law firm representing the VTA deferred comment to the agency, and the attorneys representing the ATU did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Both sides clearly have different interpretations of the contract language,” Greg Richardson, the deputy general manager for VTA, said Wednesday during a news conference. “Our belief is the current contract, although beyond its term, remains in full force during negotiations, and as such, the no strike clause is still in effect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richardson said the lawsuit is one more attempt the agency is making to try and get service back for the tens of thousands of riders who depend on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raj Singh, the president of ATU Local 265, said the lawsuit shows the “true colors” of the agency’s leadership and said VTA has “pushed us to this point” by wasting months of bargaining time ahead of the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of trying to resolve this immediately, they’re choosing to litigate and go the long route. I hope that the public is seeing this,” Singh said Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12022979\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12022979\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom addresses attendees during his inauguration for a second term at the Plaza de California in Sacramento on Jan. 6, 2023. VTA officials said they plan to pursue the governor’s involvement for a possible ‘cooling off period,’ which could pause the strike while negotiations continue. \u003ccite>(Rahul Lal/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The agency’s filings accuse the union of “bad faith behavior” at the bargaining table and said for negotiations to work, the union must “want to act in the interest of the great public they serve and understand that their public agency employer’s financial means are limited by available public tax dollars,” the filing said. “The sooner that ATU remembers this, the better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the legal fight plays out in the courts, one labor expert said a judge should not intervene in this dispute between workers and their employer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Ovetz, a senior political science lecturer at San José State University who teaches labor relations in the Master’s of Public Administration program, said there’s a long history of courts being used to break strikes and bust unions, especially before the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ultimately, the only real tool that workers have in asserting their interests is to stop working, to go on strike,” Ovetz said. “And so it would be very, very problematic for a judge to step in and then prevent them from being able to use that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ovetz said it seemed clear to him that negotiations had broken down when the strike was started, and he thinks a judge wouldn’t have a basis to grant an injunction to stop the strike. The best way to end the dispute is to simply return to bargaining, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Friday morning, the VTA said no date was set for an initial court hearing, and a judge was not assigned to the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "SF School Layoffs Are Coming, But the Total Is Far From Board’s Worst-Case Plan",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 10:40 a.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-unified-school-district\">San Francisco Unified School District\u003c/a> announced Thursday evening that it will issue about 170 preliminary layoff notices as it works to close a massive budget deficit by year’s end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pink slips will be sent to 34 counselors and 143 paraeducators — a sharp reduction from the hundreds of potential notices \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028317/sf-schools-brace-hundreds-layoffs-including-teachers-librarians-counselors\">the school board approved\u003c/a> in February — but the smaller list does not guarantee that staff reductions won’t be more significant next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Superintendent Maria Su has said the district spends about 80% of its $1.3 billion budget on staffing and faces about a $113 million shortfall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While it is very painful, it is very necessary for us to reduce our existing workforce in both our central office as well as throughout our schools,” she told reporters in February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other teachers, social workers, counselors and paraeducators will leave the district through an early retirement buyout, which more than 300 agreed to in February. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Due to the overwhelming popularity of the supplemental early retirement plan, I am really grateful to say that we do not have to issue any preliminary layoff notices to our teachers across the district,” Su said at a budget town hall Thursday night. “This is really great news for us because we were hoping and trying to find a way to preserve consistency of our [classroom] teaching staff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United Educators of San Francisco Vice President Frank Lara said the district is also cross-referencing about 280 sunsetting temporary contracts and could opt not to replace some educators who leave the district voluntarily in the spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district has already sent 57 assistant principals preliminary letters of release or reassignment, some of whom could be moved into classroom positions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFUSD shared a baseline staffing formula last month stating that classroom teachers, principals, clerks and janitors will be funded at its schools. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the district’s \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Go6kR6mU85O8bcHVZlBHntXBYvuZo-qQ/view\">new supplementary staffing guide\u003c/a>, schools will only be able to hire new social workers, nurses, librarians and counselors after those roles are covered at their campus. Schools with supplemental funding can also hire assistant principals. Hiring for some additional roles, such as English language and intervention specialists, will be on hold until 92% of classroom teaching positions across the district are filled.[aside postID=news_12028317 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241009-SFUSDCLOSURESMARCH-29-BL-KQED.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new guide also disallows hiring class size reduction teachers, angering some parent-teacher associations, which have traditionally funded these roles — such as two positions at Chinese Immersion School at DeAvila — at their children’s schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For many years in San Francisco, PTAs have stepped up to fill budget gaps for a variety of operating costs,” reads \u003ca href=\"https://www.change.org/p/let-parents-help-fund-sfusd-teachers\">a petition signed by more than 500 parents\u003c/a> opposing the new policy. “These PTA-funded resources have allowed schools to continue performing well academically despite inadequate funding and continued uncertainty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district said the notices being sent are preliminary and that it is “hopeful” final notices won’t be necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As site budgets are finalized, we will gain a clearer understanding of which positions schools will choose to fund,” an SFUSD spokesperson said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 10:40 a.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-unified-school-district\">San Francisco Unified School District\u003c/a> announced Thursday evening that it will issue about 170 preliminary layoff notices as it works to close a massive budget deficit by year’s end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pink slips will be sent to 34 counselors and 143 paraeducators — a sharp reduction from the hundreds of potential notices \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028317/sf-schools-brace-hundreds-layoffs-including-teachers-librarians-counselors\">the school board approved\u003c/a> in February — but the smaller list does not guarantee that staff reductions won’t be more significant next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Superintendent Maria Su has said the district spends about 80% of its $1.3 billion budget on staffing and faces about a $113 million shortfall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While it is very painful, it is very necessary for us to reduce our existing workforce in both our central office as well as throughout our schools,” she told reporters in February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other teachers, social workers, counselors and paraeducators will leave the district through an early retirement buyout, which more than 300 agreed to in February. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Due to the overwhelming popularity of the supplemental early retirement plan, I am really grateful to say that we do not have to issue any preliminary layoff notices to our teachers across the district,” Su said at a budget town hall Thursday night. “This is really great news for us because we were hoping and trying to find a way to preserve consistency of our [classroom] teaching staff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United Educators of San Francisco Vice President Frank Lara said the district is also cross-referencing about 280 sunsetting temporary contracts and could opt not to replace some educators who leave the district voluntarily in the spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district has already sent 57 assistant principals preliminary letters of release or reassignment, some of whom could be moved into classroom positions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFUSD shared a baseline staffing formula last month stating that classroom teachers, principals, clerks and janitors will be funded at its schools. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the district’s \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Go6kR6mU85O8bcHVZlBHntXBYvuZo-qQ/view\">new supplementary staffing guide\u003c/a>, schools will only be able to hire new social workers, nurses, librarians and counselors after those roles are covered at their campus. Schools with supplemental funding can also hire assistant principals. Hiring for some additional roles, such as English language and intervention specialists, will be on hold until 92% of classroom teaching positions across the district are filled.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new guide also disallows hiring class size reduction teachers, angering some parent-teacher associations, which have traditionally funded these roles — such as two positions at Chinese Immersion School at DeAvila — at their children’s schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For many years in San Francisco, PTAs have stepped up to fill budget gaps for a variety of operating costs,” reads \u003ca href=\"https://www.change.org/p/let-parents-help-fund-sfusd-teachers\">a petition signed by more than 500 parents\u003c/a> opposing the new policy. “These PTA-funded resources have allowed schools to continue performing well academically despite inadequate funding and continued uncertainty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district said the notices being sent are preliminary and that it is “hopeful” final notices won’t be necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As site budgets are finalized, we will gain a clearer understanding of which positions schools will choose to fund,” an SFUSD spokesperson said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"soldout": {
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"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
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