Following months of delay, union workers for the Greater Lynchburg Transit Company have voted to accept the bus system’s original contract offer – a move one union rep attributed to “settling.”
Last December, GLTC employees rejected an offer that would put the drivers of the new Liberty University routes on cleaning crews in the summer months. Those drivers, about a dozen in all, had hoped to earn year-round employment behind the wheel.
GLTC’s last union contract expired Aug. 31. The vote to approve the new terms took place Feb. 12, negotiators on both sides confirmed Thursday.
While workers weren’t necessarily “all that happy” with the deal, they settled for what was offered.
Under the new contract, employees will get an 11 percent raise spread out over the next three years. The co-pays and deductibles on their health insurance will also be raised to help offset that expense. LU drivers will have a choice of taking unpaid furlough when the university is not in session or taking a cleaning position.
The terms of the new contract extend into August 2011. GLTC has nearly 70 bus drivers and maintenance workers. Not all of those employees are dues-paying union members, but all are included under the new contract.