The V.I. Public Works Department announced that all but two VITRAN bus operators and utility workers on St. Croix called in sick to work on Thursday and Friday in what “appears to be a coordinated action.”
According to a DPW press release, the department was not informed of the apparent job action in advance and does not know the reasons behind it. The Source made multiple calls on Friday afternoon to the V.I. Workers Union — which represents VITRAN workers — but the calls went unanswered.
“We regret that this action has occurred during the holiday and Crucian Christmas Festival seasons, a time when reliable transportation is especially important for our community,” Public Works Commissioner Derek Gabriel said in a statement.
According to DPW, the sickout has disrupted VITRAN’s ADA Paratransit service, and the department has yet to finalize a contingency plan to assist people with disabilities that prevent them from using regular bus service or other modes of transportation.
A VITRAN spokesperson was not available to answer the Source’s questions on Friday afternoon.
According to testimony given to the Senate Finance Committee during a budget hearing last summer, VITRAN workers’ most recent collective bargaining agreement expired in September 2018. A tentative 2024 negotiation schedule submitted alongside testimony from the V.I. Collective Bargaining Office included negotiations with the V.I. Workers Union for Head Start employees but not VITRAN workers.
During that hearing, Territorial Chief Negotiator Joss Springette advocated for an expansion to Act 4440, which codified the territory’s collective bargaining laws. Springette argued that the law should be expanded to allow the Governor of the Virgin Islands to grant general wage increases to all unionized employees while negotiations are pending. The V.I. Workers Union was one of four that had signaled an openness to that option.
“With Act 4440 in its current form, all unions do not have to agree on extending existing CBAs,” she said at the time. “Therefore, even if we stipulate with those unions that agree, thousands of employees are likely to continue waiting several years before negotiations are completed if the law is not expanded to allow all employees to benefit.”
In a call with the Source on Friday, Springette reiterated that position and said sickouts do “the opposite of speeding things up” for government negotiators.
“So it actually slows things down — we shift our focus to the employees being out and do what we can to bring them back to work,” she said, pointing to the Collective Bargaining Office’s small staff and limited resources.
Springette said in a statement that the VITRAN workers are “hurting their neighbors, elders, friends and many others who rely on bus service to get to work and their doctor’s appointments.
“We — including — the VITRAN employees — all rely on those passengers throughout the day for various products and services in the service industry, government and the like,” she said. “They are hurting themselves.”
