OMNIRIDE DEAL: Drivers wanting better schedule, more pay reach tentative labor agreement

WOODBRIDGE — Julius Rogers can go back to work.

OmniRide operators and their union reached a collective bargaining agreement on Monday effectively ended a four-day worker strike at the transit operator.

An OmniRide press release states:

First Transit and the union that represents its bus drivers at OmniRide reached an updated Tentative Agreement for the new collective bargaining agreement late this afternoon, Monday, August 5, 2019.

This tentative agreement between First Transit and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) must still be ratified by the union membership at a future date. But until that vote is scheduled, the tentative agreement could result in OmniRide buses operating regular service possibly as soon as the morning of Tuesday, August 6.

Following negotiations, the union leadership confirmed that its members will be asked to return to work at OmniRide effective Tuesday, August 6; however OmniRide has no way of determining how many operators actually will report for work until Tuesday morning. Therefore, passengers should be prepared for modified service on Tuesday. If a sufficient number of drivers report for work on Tuesday morning, OmniRide will operate full service; otherwise we will operate modified service as we have since the work stoppage began on August 1.

The details of the new deal were not immediately available.

Bus drivers went on strike Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019, leaving only a handful of drivers to operate limited service on commuters busses, which ferry passengers from Prince William County, Manassas, and Manassas Park to Arlington and Washington, D.C. There was also limited OmniRide Local bus service within Prince William, Manassas, and Manassas Park during the strike.

Julis Rogers got his commercial drivers license in an OmniRide training program 16 years ago. He left the transit agency but returned to work there in April. He says drivers want better working hours and are tired of split shifts that require them to come in at 5:30 a.m. and work until 10 a.m. for morning commuter runs and then come back at 3:30 p.m. to take commuters home again.

“That’s a six-hour break,” said Rogers. “I don’t need a six-hour break.”

Drivers also take issue with a merit-based points system that punishes drivers for not showing up to work on time, or if they’re late to pick up passengers at a scheduled stop.

Jay Brock is a spokesman at First Tranist, Inc., the company that is contracted to hire drivers to operate OmniRide buses. He told Potomac Local that bus drivers also want more pay, demanding a 20% wage increase over the next three years.

Monday’s tentative agreement comes well before August 13, the time when Brock said the two parties — First Transit, Inc. and AFSCME officials were to restart labor talks.