The story has been updated.

Organizers with the local public transit union packed VIA Metropolitan Transit’s board room Tuesday evening to call out what they call “union busting” efforts by the publicly-owned transit agency.

“Unfortunately, this year, the dialogue with management has been more difficult than in the past,” said Brigido Almanza IV, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 694, which represents more than 1,500 bus operators and maintenance personnel employed at VIA.

“We’re not asking for for a whole lot, we just want the company to be fair.” Almanza told reporters before the meeting, adding that the union is asking for a 40% raise to catch up to the cost of living and inflation.

The VIA board was previously slated to consider adjustments in working conditions such as wages and schedules during its meeting on Tuesday. That item was removed from the agenda last week, meaning the board did not discuss such changes or union relations.

Still, about 75 members rallied outside VIA’s headquarters ahead of the meeting when council members Teri Castillo (D5) and Manny Pelaez (D8) stood behind Almanza as he addressed the board during the public comment portion.

VIA should take care of the workers that “keep San Antonio moving,” Castillo told the board. They should “still have the opportunity to improve their quality of life.”

VIA could not afford a 40% driver wage increase “without drastic cuts to service — slashed so deep that VIA would very likely no longer be eligible” for federal funding for projects like its Green Line, VIA spokesman Josh Baugh said after the meeting.

The board is slated to approve the new working conditions policy before it finalizes its budget in September, Baugh said.

Despite receiving less sales tax revenue than other major city transit agencies, VIA bus drivers, or operators, are the best paid across the state, when adjusted for cost of living, he noted in an email. “At month 12 of employment at VIA, an operator earns $25.25 hourly. In Austin, the wage is $20.62 while Houston and Dallas both pay $23.81 and $23.18, respectively.”

But in an email Wednesday, the union disputed those figures. On Thursday, Baugh acknowledged that the $25.25 rate is actually for operators at 24 months of service.

VIA’s current working conditions policy shows that new operators earn just $22.69 after one year — the lowest pay among other large public transit agencies, including Dallas ($24.61), Houston ($23.64) and Austin ($23.69), according to those cities’ pay scales provided by the union and available online.

Starting pay for bus operators is $21.58 per hour and are offered a hiring incentive of up to $4,000.

VIA employees can’t collectively bargain for a labor contract under Texas law because it is a public agency (though exceptions are made for certain uniformed police and fire department employees). For decades, VIA has collaborated with the union when making changes to working conditions.

This so-called “meet and confer” arrangement has meant that the union and management come to a consensus on policies such as schedule, wage and other changes before they are sent to the board for final approval, said Rob Wohl, an organizer with the Washington D.C. area-based Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) International who is working with the ATU Local 694.

In May, VIA representatives told the union they would present working condition changes to the board regardless of consensus with the union, Wohl said.

“They explicitly said: This is going to be a monologue, not a dialogue,” he said.

That came after a union protest in March called out the agency’s alleged refusal to recognize more employees — including certain supervisors, security staff and administrative/customer service staff — as part of the union.

While VIA has the legal right to recommend unilateral changes outside of agreement with the union, “historically, VIA has had a policy of doing more than the bare minimum that they have to do legally … to afford workers [the] maximum voice,” Wohl said.

From VIA’s perspective, the meet and confer process remains a dialogue and is essentially the same as it was three years ago when the latest consensus on working conditions was reached, President and CEO Jeff Arndt told the San Antonio Report before the rally.

VIA currently has no intention of making recommendations to the board that are outside consensus, Arndt said.

“We are very close to having a document that we would call a consensus document,” he added, but ultimately, the board makes the final call on whether to follow a recommendation from staff.

Both Ardnt and Almanza said they would continue to meet and confer.

Other employees from different departments are automatically allowed to join the public sector union, Arndt said, and VIA’s only involvement is to send union dues to the union once an employee authorizes it to.

There are roughly 900 VIA employees who pay union dues out of their paycheck, but all of the more than 1,500 bus operator and maintenance personnel benefit from the working conditions agreement.

But other employees and departments are not listed under the working conditions policy.

Joseph Frasier, a station foreman whose position does not fall under the policy, said that’s why he hasn’t joined the union yet.

“I’d be paying dues for nothing,” Frasier said in the overflowing parking lot outside VIA headquarters.

The conversation between the union and VIA about which employees are included in the working conditions policy is “continuing” during their private meet-and-confer sessions together, Baugh said after the meeting, “and we’re not going to discuss those conversations in the media.”

For Kenya Skinner, a lead station foreman who has worked at VIA for 17 years, it’s unfair that her position isn’t included in the policy.

“My main concern is about fairness and equality across the board,” Skinner said, adding that employees covered by the working conditions policy are eligible for benefits, such as certain holidays off, that she has never enjoyed.

VIA, under state law cannot formally negotiate a binding labor contract, Arndt noted. The agency hired an attorney to ensure those conversations stay within the legal lines of meet and confer.

“We must comply with state law,” Arndt said.

In the past, however, he acknowledged that those conversations might have resembled contract negotiations, “but no one from staff was ever authorized to negotiate” under his leadership, said Arndt, who has led VIA for 12 years.

Pelaez, an employment attorney who is running for mayor, said after the meeting that he’s confident the two sides will come to an agreement.

“I’ve been involved in other disputes where it’s thermonuclear war between the parties,” he said after the meeting. “In this instance, I don’t see that in the room. What I do pick up is frustration.”