TCAT workers in Tompkins County are weighing a strike, according to a statement from the union.
Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit is the bus service for the county, the city of Ithaca and Cornell University. The union is a local branch of the United Auto Workers and represents bus drivers, maintenance and custodial workers. Their last contract expired in December and negotiations have been ongoing since the end of January, according to the UAW.
Workers will vote Tuesday and Wednesday on whether or not to authorize a strike. However, that does not mean that a work stoppage is inevitable. Instead, authorization would give the union’s bargaining team permission to call a strike if needed.
The union announced the vote in a statement released last week, which said TCAT’s “last, best, and final offer” had “significant gaps.”
The union is calling for cost of living adjustments for workers, better longevity pay and the ability to refuse mandatory overtime.
The UAW is also calling for higher wages, citing a new study from Cornell that estimated a living wage of around $25 an hour.
“The offer fails to account for the true cost of living in Tompkins County, leaving our lowest paid workers at a significant disadvantage,” the union said in a statement.
The living wage estimate represents the cost of living for a childless person residing in the county.
Some employees, like custodians and bus handlers, would still make less than that estimated living wage under the new contract.
TCAT general manager Matthew Roseblum-Jones told WSKG that the nonprofit would like to raise wages for those workers in a separate agreement after the current contract is ratified.
“We are going to remain a certified living wage employer, and we just need to figure out the logistics of that.”
Rosenblum-Jones said the new estimate, which included an over 30% jump in the living wage between 2023 and 2025, was released too late to be incorporated into the last contract offer.
The starting wage for a new bus driver is currently $25.66 an hour. The wage for a new bus driver would be $26.94 an hour under the proposed new contract, according to Rosenblum-Jones.
The vote comes after several notable UAW strikes over the past two years.
Workers at the Big Three AutoMakers, Stellantis, Ford, and General Motors went on strike in 2023. The union then secured new contracts at all three companies.
Cornell University service and maintenance workers are represented by the union too. Last year, they won what the UAW called “a major win for higher education workers” after going on strike for more than two weeks.
This is a developing story and will be updated as we receive new information.