Phoenix Fines Struck Bus Company for Not Providing Service

May 18, 2016 
By Steven Wishnia and Neal Tepel

Phoenix, AZ – The Phoenix Public Transit Department has fined the private company that runs most of its bus service $50,000 for failing to provide adequate service during the eight-day January drivers’ strike.

The Transdev company’s five-year contract with the city requires it to provide at least 60% of scheduled weekday service five days into a strike or be fined $25,000 a day. The fines assessed for the sixth and seventh days of the walkout, will be split $20,000 for the city and $30,000 for the drivers, members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1433. The union, which took a lower pay increase in exchange for ending two-tier wages, also wants Phoenix to de-privatize its public transportation. Transdev, a French-based company formerly called Veolia, operates in 19 countries and runs bus service in Denver and Nassau County on Long Island. It also runs school-bus service in Boston, where its undermining of job security and firing of four union officers provoked successful wildcat strikes last fall. Read more