Transit Union battles Laidlaw Inc.

PORTLAND, OR -- Laidlaw Inc., a multi-billion-dollar corporation based in Canada, is seemingly thumbing its nose at labor laws in the United States and getting away with it, while Oregon school districts that it has contracts with complain about poor service, charged Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 757.

For several years Laidlaw has been gobbling up smaller companies to create a huge multinational conglomerate in transportation-related businesses, waste management and ambulance and environmental services. The publicly-traded company, which saw its revenues increase 36 percent in 1997 to $3 billion, recently purchased Greyhound Bus Lines of Canada and is in the processing of buying Greyhound in the United States.

In Oregon, subsidiary Laidlaw Transit Inc. has contracts to operate buses in 18 school districts. It also contracts with C-Tran in Vancouver to provide paratransit service and with Tri-Met to provide lift-van service in Washington County. Laidlaw owns American Medical Response-Northwest (AMR-NW), which has exclusive contracts to provide 9-1-1 ambulance services in Multnomah, Clackamas and Clark counties. AMR also has a small operation in Grants Pass.

Local 757 represents nearly 1,000 Laidlaw employees at AMR-NW Portland and Grants Pass, Laidlaw Transit in Corvallis, Tigard-Tualatin and Portland school districts, at C-Tran and Tri-Met. It has been trying to negotiate first contracts at Corvallis, Tigard-Tualatin, C-Tran and AMR-NW and is facing contract openers in Portland, Grants Pass and Tri-Met later this year. The pattern in each bargaining unit has been similar. Employees vote overwhelmingly for union representation because of low pay, few benefits or unsatisfactory working conditions. The union provides dates for bargaining. The company stalls and stalls and stalls. Workers threaten to strike. The company meets briefly with the union to exchange proposals and then stalls and stalls and stalls some more.

ATU Local 757 has filed unfair labor practice charges involving almost every bargaining unit.

In Tigard, where employees have given strike authorization the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered Laidlaw to resume negotiating. The board wrote that the only excuses it would accept for Laidlaw not to negotiate were "death, major natural disaster, airplane hijacking or agreement by both parties."

According to Local 757, last November the NLRB got Laidlaw to agree in writing to meet with the union two times a month for six months for at least six hours each meeting.

By Feb. 3 the company had yet to even notify the union of dates it was available to bargain. Only after workers voted to strike did Laidlaw come to the table. "The meeting lasted 45 minutes and ended with a Laidlaw representative informing us he would respond to our proposal later," the union said.

Last week -- after 45 days with no response from the company -- city and school bus drivers in Corvallis voted 43-5 to strike if bargaining doesn't begin soon. "Employees are sending a strong message to Laidlaw and the public entities which contract with it that they are not going to stand by and let their rights under the law be ignored," said Ron Heintzman, president of Portland-based ATU Local 757.

School districts are complaining about poor service and some are looking into operating their own bus service. "There's a point where you say there's got to be a better way," Patricia Biggs, a school board member in Tigard-Tualatin, told reporters. "I'm not sure we'd save money doing it ourselves. But what we would have is the ability to control our product."

Heintzman said Laidlaw "will have to take less profit and pay a family living wage. If they don't do that they're not going to get any decent drivers and the problems will continue."

Employees at AMR-NW (a Laidlaw acquisition in 1996) have been bargaining for a new contract since 1995, granted it has been with different unions. Negotiations initially began with Local 757 on a renewal of a contract that expired Feb. 1, 1996. During that time, however, workers decertified to form an independent union. That lasted about 18 months and ATU was again selected as the workers' representative.

Throughout the process employees have worked under a "modified" ATU agreement in which management doesn't recognize arbitration for disputes, union security or payroll deduction for union dues. No one has received a pay raise.

Talks renewed in early October 1997 and next week employees will vote on a proposal that is rife with takeaways. The bargaining team is recommending it be rejected. If it is, a strike sanction vote will be taken immediately.

In Vancouver, C-Tran finally ordered Laidlaw (which bought Dave's Transportation) to go to arbitration or lose its contract to provide service after negotiations had dragged on for nearly a year.

"What we've found is that when Laidlaw is threatened, when they're being pressured by the contractor, that's where we can see we actually get to the table," Heintzman said. But not always.

Drivers and maintenance personnel at Portland School District settled a contract with Laidlaw in September 1995, but that contract still hasn't been signed by the employer, Heintzman said.

In fact, the union was forced to file an unfair labor practice complaint because the company wouldn't live up to the agreement concerning extra pay for charter bus and extracurricular drivers. The NLRB and 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the union, ordering Laidlaw to pony up all back pay ($1 an hour for every hour worked), plus 20 percent interest.

Heintzman said Laidlaw didn't respond to the court order so the NLRB has initiated civil contempt of court charges.

"I have never heard of a company facing contempt of court in negotiations," said Heintzman. "They are thumbing their nose at labor laws in this country. It has to stop."

Heintzman said he might have taken the company's actions personally had it not been for similar complaints being lodged by other local unions in Denver, Tacoma, Chicago, Canada and elsewhere.

ATU Local 757 plans to step up pressure on school boards and municipalities that award contracts to Laidlaw. It is also planning a conference in Portland later this year in which it will bring in unions from throughout the U.S. and Canada that have dealings with Laidlaw Inc.

"Our goal is to share stories of abuses by this company and show that it is abusing the system and that it should be put on the fast-track by the NLRB," Heintzman said. Unions' unfair labor practice complaints against fast-track corporations are expedited through the NLRB process.

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