Supervisors at the Gold Coast Transit District have joined Teamsters Local 186. The fifteen supervisors oversee transit operations for the cities of Oxnard, Camarillo, Ventura and Ojai in Ventura County, California.

“Congratulations to our newest members at the Gold Coast Transit District in Oxnard,” said Local 186 Secretary-Treasurer Abel Garcia. “These workers had their choice of labor unions to join, and they chose the strongest – the Teamsters!”

The new members cited wages, benefits and a desire for fairness as their reasons for wanting to join the Teamsters.  Robert Magaña has been a supervisor for seven years, and he said that he’s looking forward to being covered under a Teamster contract.

“Before, we had no pay scale, so we have the possibility of guys who have been working here for 15 years making the same as guys who just came off probation,” Magaña said. “Now we can negotiate a pay scale. We also aren’t going to be employees at-will pretty soon, so we’ll have more of a voice with upper management.” 

The campaign only took a few weeks, and the transit district voluntarily recognized the bargaining unit, thus avoiding the need for an NLRB election. The drivers employed by the Gold Coast Transit District are already members of a different union.

“We felt that the Teamsters was the strongest and most iconic union in the country, so we decided to with them,” Magaña added.

 

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