Honolulu’s bus drivers ratified a new five-year labor contract Tuesday with Oahu Transit Services Inc., the company that runs TheBus.
The agreement, which calls for a wage freeze for the first 16 months but a 6.4 percent raise during the five-year period, was tentatively reached June 30, the day the last five-year contract expired.
It followed several weeks of talks, according to OTS officials, and it covers some 1,400 bus drivers, clerical staff and maintenance workers in Teamsters Local 996.
"It speaks well of the parties, OTS and the Teamsters, that they were able to reach an agreement amicably, supported by the membership, and avoid any shutdown of TheBus," Mayor Kirk Caldwell said in a statement.
Some 240,000 riders use TheBus each day, according to OTS figures.
Local 996 members approved the deal by an "overwhelming" vote conducted throughout the day, said Millie Downey, the union’s secretary-treasurer. She did not specify the final count.
"We didn’t get as much as we wanted" due to continued slow economic growth, Downey said. However, the Teamsters maintained their same medical benefits, and that was their top priority, she added.
ALL union employees will remain covered under the Teamsters Health and Welfare plan through a 100 percent employer contribution of $895 a month, according to an OTS statement.
The deal also provides a 17 percent increase in OTS pension contributions over the five-year period and no impacts to the company’s 2014 budget, according to the OTS statement.
Tuesday’s ratification marks the third five-year contract that the Teamsters and OTS have inked since 2003 — the last time the drivers went on strike. Before then the last time Honolulu’s bus drivers went on strike was 1971.
"Given the recent strikes in San Francisco and the importance of TheBus to Oahu’s residents, mahalo to the Teamsters and OTS for coming to an agreement," city Transportation Services Director Michael Formby said in a statement.
