Workers Organized for Better Pay, Treatment and Working Conditions

(VENTURA, Calif.) –Thirty-seven drivers, road supervisors and dispatchers employed by RATP Dev have joined Teamsters Local 186. The workers provide transit services for the Ventura County Transportation Commission (VCTC).

“The vote was overwhelmingly union yes,” said Abel Garcia, Local 186 Secretary-Treasurer. “Local 186 will not tolerate bullying from management.”

The organizing drive took two months from start to finish – a relatively quick turnaround that speaks to how eager the workers were to join the Teamsters. Workers at the company reported that they sought to unionize because, among other reasons, drivers were sometimes forced to sit idling for hours without pay – a practice that puts drivers at risk of fatigue.

Ruby McCormick has been a driver at RATP Dev for three years. She said that improving things at the company with a union is critical to addressing safety and turnover.

“Drivers should be making a decent wage,” McCormick said. ‘We need drivers, and in order to hire and retain them we need better pay and working conditions. We’re exhausted from being short-staffed, and if we’re tired, we shouldn’t be punished for calling out. That’s not safe for us or the customers. There has to be a way to come up with an agreement to make things better.”

Teamsters Local 186 represents workers in a wide variety of industries throughout Ventura County, Calif. and the surrounding communities. For more information, go to https://www.teamsterslocal186.org/.

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