Ex-Spirit Teamster Local 848 Bus drivers sue Monterey Park over change in companies from MV to First Transit "“I lost my bidding seniority and now I’m at the bottom of the list,” Baza said. “I have to work nights and weekends, which means I spend less ti

Ex-Spirit Teamster Local 848 Bus drivers sue Monterey Park over change in companies from MV to First Transit "“I lost my bidding seniority and now I’m at the bottom of the list,” Baza said. “I have to work nights and weekends, which means I spend less time with my family.”
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Three former Spirit Bus drivers and their union are suing the city of Monterey Park for allegedly violating the state’s labor laws when it awarded a contract to a new bus company. (File photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star News)
By City News Service
POSTED: 12/08/15, 9:14 AM PST | UPDATED: 2 HRS AGO0 COMMENTS
LOS ANGELES — The city of Monterey Park is named in legal action by three transportation workers and their union for allegedly violating the state’s labor laws when it awarded a contract to a new bus company through an evaluation and selection process the plaintiffs maintain was unlawful.

The Los Angeles Superior Court petition filed Wednesday asks a judge to set aside the city’s Spirit Bus agreement with First Transit and order the city to seek new proposals or reevaluate all those in full compliance with the law.

City Manager Paul Talbot could not be immediately reached today.

Plaintiffs Jose Baza, Ruth Villafuerte and Isabel Martin were long-time drivers for the Spirit Bus line, operated at the time by MV Transportation, when the Monterey Park City Council approved the implementation of a new contract in June with a different transit company, the petition states.

The drivers, members of Teamsters Local 848 who worked under a union contract with MV, had to transfer to another bus line operated by MV to avoid reduced wages, elimination of pension benefits and a large reduction in other health and welfare benefits, according to the petition.

The three lost any bidding seniority status they had, adversely affecting the shifts and routes available to them, the petition states.

“The city violated a law that was meant to protect me,” Martin alleges. “Because of that, I was forced to give up a route I had been driving for nine years. The new contractor in Monterey Park would have cut my pay, vacation and benefits. By leaving that assignment, I lost by bidding seniority and I will have to take whatever route and shift is left.”

Baza said he had to give up a route he drove for three years.

“I lost my bidding seniority and now I’m at the bottom of the list,” Baza said. “I have to work nights and weekends, which means I spend less time with my family.”