The union representing Metro bus drivers, mechanics and clerical workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike after two days of balloting ended Tuesday.
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 788 President Michael Breihan said he was gratified by the outcome of the balloting. “The membership is united,” Breihan said.
He said the union vote is the first part of a process that could potentially lead to a strike. The next step is for Local 788 to ask the international union to sanction a strike.
The 1,200-member bargaining unit of ATU Local 788 will also await the decision from nonbinding arbitration it has been in with Metro.
The two sides are at odds over Metro’s insistence that new employees enroll in a 401(k)-style retirement plan rather than a traditional pension. Union members also are concerned about pay levels and the cost of medical coverage.
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If it comes to a strike, Breihan said, the work stoppage wouldn’t begin before July.
“We don’t want to strike, and we don’t want to abandon the people of St. Louis who rely on us to get to work, school and other daily tasks,” Breihan said in an emailed statement. “We want our riders to know that we stand ready to negotiate a fair contract, but that we cannot accept a contract that essentially sets us back to where we were decades ago.”
The workers’ current contract expired on June 30, 2009, and they have agreed to two extensions the last of which ended on Jan. 21, 2011, the union said.
Ken Leiser is the transportation writer at the Post-Dispatch. Read his Along for the Ride column online and every Sunday in the newspaper.
