Las Vegas Sun News
Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleFriday
7 December 2012
7:59 a.m.
Updated
7 Dec. 2012 8:10 a.m.
Drivers for the Yellow-Checker-Star taxi companies have authorized union leaders to call a strike as early as Dec. 16 over their ongoing contract dispute.
After a vote completed late Thursday, a representative of the Industrial Technical Professional Employees Union said the vote to authorize a strike was “overwhelming,” but the union would not disclose vote counts or percentages of voter approval.
A contract extension between the drivers and YCS, the second-largest taxi company group in Southern Nevada, is in effect through Dec. 15.
Talks between union and company bargaining teams are scheduled Wednesday and Thursday.
Sam Moffitt, chief shop steward for YCS and a leader of ITPE Local 4873, said a greater number of members voted to authorize the strike than voted to reject YCS management’s last contract offer, which was endorsed by the union negotiating team.
In that vote, which concluded Nov. 30, Moffitt said, more than half of the union’s membership of more than 1,200 voted, with 80 percent rejecting the deal. Company officials, knowing the union negotiating team backed the deal, said they were “stunned by the results.”
After the results were announced, YCS management issued a statement speculating that a low turnout, which it estimated at 35 percent of those eligible, resulted in the contract vote failing.
Drivers have worked under contract extensions since the end of October, when their original agreements expired.
Moffitt said opposition to pay and shift policies resulted in the rejection of the contract. He said despite increasing meter revenue for the company, most drivers barely make minimum wage, and drivers have had to appeal to government regulators to receive the hourly minimum wage.
Moffitt said tensions mounted after supervisors directed some drivers to remove campaign buttons supporting the union’s position. Drivers were threatened with disciplinary action if they were seen wearing a button that says “I will strike,” Moffitt said.
Moffitt said the wearing buttons is a common union tactic. In past contract negotiations, drivers wore buttons that said “Fair contract.”
Meanwhile, another union, United Steelworkers Local 711-A, has been in contract talks with Frias Transportation Management, the largest taxi company group in Southern Nevada, since Sept. 11. Those talks have been complicated by internal squabbles within the union.
Proposed changes in the seniority policy and how drivers are allowed to choose their shifts is at issue in talks between the Steelworkers and Frias management.
Fearing the prospect of the two largest cab operators facing strikes, the Nevada Taxicab Authority voted in an emergency meeting in late October to allow other companies to operate more cabs in the event of strikes at YCS and Frias.
Share
Join the Discussion:
Previous Discussion:
Discussion 2 comments
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
Most Popular
- Two arrested in iPad robbery that caused death of teenager
- Sheriff weighs in on pimps, cops, hip-hop and cameras on the Strip, and more
- Head-on crash on I-15 leaves 3 dead, 4 injured
- In writing book, Goodman ‘found myself to be a hero’
- Panel finalizes plan to send $37.5 million more to S. Nevada colleges
"most drivers barely make minimum wage"
------
Doesn't sound like a very good job. Who's making all the money being raked in by the high fares?
If anyone of them strikes they should be fired on the spot. Driving a car isn't that hard, I'm sure there will be plenty of people willing to fill their jobs.
Unions full of long haulers.
"Driving a car isn't that hard" There is more to driving, truck or car than just holding a wheel. I'ts a business, customer service, knowing what your doing and where your going and handling money. That's what that show Undercover Boss is about. Anybody can sit on their butt and say another job is easy until they try it. Good drivers have jobs, "wheel holders" as the dispatcher calls them don't last long.
I'd feel much more sympathy for the drivers if more than 50 percent of my guests didn't complain about the fare from the airport...40 bucks compared to the 15 it should be
OK. $40 from Airport. Why are drivers barely making minimum wage then? In a 12 hour shift I can do 20 runs. That's $800 gross. You're telling my pay is less than $100?
The union is playing right into the hads of management who will save enormous amounts of money by not having to pay drivers during the slowest time of the year, also giving them many weeks to hire replacement workers who they possibly believe will be in abundance. Of coarse it helps that government has only cursory requirements to get a taxi license here as compared to all the other states in the USA. Best wishes to the union in there push to recieve at least Nevada state minimum wage protections in perhaps the most exploited industry in this state and the nation.
Extend the monorail to the airport, that will end this.
"Who's making the bucks". Seriously, you have to ask that question? First of all, I understand that there is a lot of consternation about the monorail, but seriously, don't you think a monorail to the airport and back, appropriately priced to support the system, would unclog a lot of the roads in and out of the strip? I will tell you that all those times I flew in for CES and other shows and had to wait hours in line for a taxi to get to the Venetian would have gone the way of the monorail if it had been in service.
idiots they should strike during the nfr nothing is going on the 16th of dec.
Go for it drivers! While your at it, throw the issue of carbon monoxide poisoning on the table too. The waiting tunnels are a killer, let alone sitting in line. The Mirage even has signs warning against it. Your union leaders should be looking at ways to protect the drivers health as well.