WRTA Workers Call In Sick, Snarl Service
A majority of Worcester Regional Transit Authority workers called in sick this morning as part of an apparent planned work outage related to the negotiation of a new contract.
John Carney, general manager of RTA Transit Services Inc., which is the management contractor for the WRTA, said at about 4 a.m. he learned 22 of 32 morning shift bus drivers called in sick. Another five of the WRTA's 31 afternoon workers have also called in sick.
Carney said he expects the WRTA to file an injunction in federal court today requesting a cease and desist order to stop the worker outage.
Most all of the WRTA routes were delayed or cancelled because of the lack of employees this morning. Only three of the WRTA's 22 morning routes ran on a normal schedule this morning.
The Local 22 Amalgamated Transit Union's contract expired on June 30 and negotiations for a new contract have been ongoing for months. Carney said the union and WRTA agreed to meet with a federal mediator on Aug. 18.
"Quite frankly, we thought things were going in the right direction," he said.
Chris Bruce, ATU Local 22 business agent and treasurer, said he was unaware of any organized plan for workers calling in sick. He said some workers that did not show up today had pre-approved time off, so the actual number of workers calling in sick is lower than 22.
Bruce expects most all workers will be back on Tuesday, and a handful of workers who called in told him they were legitimately sick.
"I didn't know about it until John Carney called me this morning," he said.
Bruce said the contract negotiations have been difficult, and the two sides were "miles apart" at the last meeting. Wages, health insurance costs and work hours are among the points of contention in the negotiations.
The WRTA normally serves between 10,000 and 11,000 customers per day across 35 communities in Central Massachusetts, according to Carney.
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