Thursday 6:40 p.m. UPDATE

In the latest salvo in their increasingly bitter contract battle, Chittenden County Transportation Authority drivers have rejected pleas issued by both CCTA and Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger to settle their differences in arbitration.

A day after voting 54-0 to reject CCTA's latest contract offer, drivers brushed aside a request from CCTA to have a neutral arbitrator decide the matter. Weinberger, in his most decisive move to date in the labor feud, had also urged drivers to go to arbitration.

“We rejected binding arbitration for the same reasons we rejected management’s last proposal," bus drivers' union spokesman Rob Slingerland said. "Management and their lawyer don’t have to live under the terms of their proposed contract. We do. Agreeing to binding arbitration does not move us closer to having safer working conditions, safer conditions for passengers and other drivers, or livable jobs. Those are our core demands and what is necessary to reach a settlement.”

Drivers say they plan to strike on Monday, shutting down nearly all CCTA bus routes. 

CCTA officials could not be immediately reached for comment. Contrary to Slingerland's assertion, the agency had said earlier in the day that an arbitrator's finding would be legally binding on both sides.

"I am encouraged by the prospect that the parties may engage in binding arbitration," Weinberger said in a statement earlier in the day. "This process is one the City of Burlington has used on occasion and is generally seen as a fair and substantive process for resolving contract disputes. For the good of the thousands of people who rely on CCTA service, I urge acceptance of this binding arbitration proposal or for the parties to identify and agree to some other viable option to resolve this dispute, thereby avoiding a damaging interruption of bus service."

Original Post, filed Thursday morning and updated mid-afternoon: 

Chittenden County Transportation Authority drivers unanimously rejected management's latest contract offer and said they plan to shut down the bus network next week with a strike. 

Drivers voted 54-0 Wednesday night against CCTA's latest offer, which was made over the weekend and forestalled a scheduled Monday strike. On Thursday afternoon, the drivers vowed to walk off the job Monday. 

"Drivers are calling for a fair contract that treats drivers with respect, avoids increasing driver fatigue and creates livable jobs," union spokesman Rob Slingerland said in a statement. "We are living in a world with more and more part-time jobs. People can't make ends meet with part-time labor. The drivers can't live under the terms of management's last proposal. That's why it was voted down in such a big way."

In response to the vote, CCTA asked the union to go to arbitration, where both parties would be obligated to accept the legally binding recommendation of a neutral evaluator.

“We’re disappointed the union has voted to strike. Disrupting service would impose an extraordinary burden on many Vermonters,” said Bill Watterson, CCTA General Manager. “Our most recent offer – which included generous pay increases and flexibility in work rules – was exceedingly fair, reasonable and respectful. CCTA is hopeful the Union will reconsider its decision to strike and agree to binding arbitration.”

The Burlington School Board went back to the drawing board Tuesday night, one week after residents repudiated a budget proposal that would have increased taxes by nearly 10 percent. 

It’s been more than a decade since Burlington voters struck down a school budget. As board members tried to sort out their options, it was clear they find themselves in unfamiliar territory.

At times, they sounded like political strategists, analyzing vote counts in various wards. At others, they sounded like marketers, discussing how best to “sell” Budget 2.0. Throughout, they sounded like people backed into an uncomfortable place.

“I didn’t get on our school board to decimate our schools,” said Meredith Woodward King (Ward 2). “I feel very uncomfortable in this position.”

In a memo to board members, Superintendent Jeanne Collins, wrote: “Given that 77% of our expenses are personnel related, reductions of personnel in a variety of programs and services must be made in order to meet the goals above.”

“Tweaking around the edges will not meet the goal,” the memo continued, “as there is not much left to tweak.”

Thread Magazine, Burlington's two-and-a-half-year-old arts and culture publication, has a history of serving as a mouthpiece for the Vermont Democratic Party. 

It has regularly featured Democratic candidates — and only Democratic candidates — on its news pages. It threw a campaign party for then-mayoral candidate Miro Weinberger days before his 2012 election. And it's invited readers to fundraisers for the Burlington Democratic Party and Planned Parenthood.

Now the connection is official. 

The VDP announced Tuesday that it's hired Thread's founder and publisher, Ben Sarle, as its new communications director. Sarle, a former freelance photographer for the Burlington Free Press, replaces Ryan Emerson, who stepped down in January to run for a Burlington City Council seat.

The relief felt by Burlington area commuters when Chittenden County Transportation Authority bus drivers abandoned their plan to strike on Monday may prove fleeting.

The head of the drivers' union says he will vote 'No' on a contract proposal that CCTA presented to drivers late Saturday night and believes his colleagues will follow suit. A vote on the contract offer will happen as soon as tomorrow, the union says, and no later than the weekend.

Drivers say that if they reject CCTA's offer, a strike could soon follow.

In an interview, union head Rob Slingerland said CCTA's latest offer is not significantly different than a previous proposal, which drivers rejected 53-4 in February.

“They keep throwing us little pieces of cheese,” Slingerland said. “It’s not going to keep us from walking. We are headstrong this time, and if they’re not taking us seriously, they’re going to find out. I’m definitely a ‘no’ vote. They could throw in a $10-an-hour raise and it would be a ‘no’ to me.”

While declining to delve into specifics, Slingerland said the new contract fails to address the union's two core concerns:  CCTA's desire to hire more part-timers and the 13.5 hour "spread" between when drivers begin their morning runs and when they complete their evening runs. (Many CCTA drivers work split shifts, taking time off in the afternoon  between the busy morning and evening commutes. Drivers say CCTAs schedules are burdensome and should be revamped. CCTA said the schedules are an unavoidable part of a transit system that serves people traveling to and from work.)

"It's no better than the one we voted down," said driver Sherry Siebenaler, who also plans to vote against the deal. "It's a slap in the face."

CCTA spokeswoman Meredith Birkett said the agency has been advised by a federal mediator helping in the negotiations to refrain from comment. "To maintain the best environment for careful consideration of the proposal, we do not have any additional comments at this time." 

CCTA has said that almost all of its service — the non-profit provides nearly 10,000 rides a day along its sprawling network — would be unavailable during a strike. 

Slingerland said drivers, who have held public rallies in recent weeks, are hoping that riders will understand.

“We have relationships with our ridership," Slingerland said. "We know what a strike would do. We want this over as fast as possible. (But) we expect a fair contract.”

Each weekday, Seven Days scans the news across the Vermont media landscape to find the smartest, best and most compelling stories. We bundle them up in an email and send them out to our subscribers early each afternoon. It's called the Daily 7.

So which Vermont news stories are you reading? And which should you be reading? Here are the stories you clicked on most from this week's editions of the Daily 7:

 

Lesbian Couple Sues Town for Discrimination, Intimidation
By David Charns, WPTZ — Wednesday, March 5

A couple in Addison says neighbors and town officials have harassed and discriminated against them because they're lesbians.

CCTA to Shut Down All But Two Routes Monday — If Drivers Strike
By Mark Davis, Seven Days Off Message — Thursday, March 6

Two commuter routes will run on a limited schedule if CCTA drivers go on strike Monday. All others would stop operating.

More than 150 people crowded into Burlington City Hall Auditorium Thursday evening to rally behind Chittenden County Transportation Authority drivers, who are threatening to strike on Monday if they do not get an acceptable new contract this weekend.

Speakers at the event, including drivers and representatives of other local unions, accused CCTA leaders of treating drivers harshly and negotiating in bad faith.

As 25 other drivers stood behind him, bus driver Mike Walker said the CCTA management team "insists on having all the authority, but none of the responsibility — a management team that wants to drive a bus from a desk."


CCTA and its drivers have failed to reach an agreement on a new contract despite holding nearly a dozen negotiating sessions since last summer. In February, drivers voted 53-4 to reject CCTA's most recent contract offer.

While the Teamsters Local 597, the drivers union, and CCTA have largely agreed on salary and benefits, drivers say they are unhappy with their working hours and conditions, and what some speakers described as "predatory management."

In particular, drivers are critical of CCTA's increasing use of split shifts — working during the morning and evening commutes, with a few hours of rest in between — and say the agency would like to hire more part-time drivers.

Chittenden County State Sen. Phil Baruth echoed that, saying he was concerned that CCTA's management was determined to weaken the union and eventually trim the number of full-time drivers.

"It's part of a larger anti-union context," Baruth, a Democrat, told the crowd. "These little niggling things that aren't about money now...will be about money and full-time jobs down the road."

Negotiations are scheduled for Saturday. Rallies in support of the drivers have been organized for Saturday morning at CCTA headquarters and Sunday afternoon at the Vermont Workers' Center. 

Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, state chair of the Vermont Progressive Party and a former Burlington city councilor, criticized Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger for failing to get involved in the dispute. Weinberger has issued a couple of  short public statements urging a settlement, but has not entered the fray. He also declined Seven Days requests for an interview on the subject.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders could be edging closer to a 2016 presidential run. In an interview with the Nation published today, Vermont's junior senator said "I am prepared to run for president of the United States."

"What I do wake up every morning feeling is that this country faces more serious problems than at any time since the Great Depression, and there is a horrendous lack of serious political discourse or ideas out there that can address these crises, and that somebody has got to represent the working-class and the middle-class of this country in standing up to the big-money interests who have so much power over the economic and political life of this country," Sanders told the Nation. "So I am prepared to run for president of the United States. I don’t believe that I am the only person out there who can fight this fight, but I am certainly prepared to look seriously at that race."

While stopping short of declaring that he will run, Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, openly discussed for the first time what a campaign might look like, acknowledging it would be "unconventional" and rooted (no surprise) in the fight against inequality.

He spoke of the disparate groups he would have to bring together and said he would continue to travel around the country meeting with people in the near future. Most surprisingly, he said he is unsure whether he would run as a Democrat or independent, but discussed that dilemma in some detail.

"I think we’ve got a message that can resonate, that people want to hear, that people need to hear. Time is very important. But I don’t think it makes sense — or that it is necessary — to start a campaign this early," Sanders said.

The author of the piece, John Nichols, is a long-time Sanders chronicler.

As Seven Days noted in a piece last October speculating about Sanders' presidential ambitions  the senator has developed a national, small-dollar fundraising network that brought in 146,460 contributions from roughly half as many people during his last six-year election cycle.

The Chittenden County Transportation Authority says it will shut down all but two routes on Monday if drivers' carry through with a threatened strike,  potentially disrupting the lives of thousands of county residents.

With a last-ditch bargaining session for a new contract scheduled on Saturday, CCTA confirmed this morning what it had previously refused to acknowledge — that it effectively has no backup plan to keep its routes running in the event of a strike.

Limited service would continue on the Montpelier LINK line and the 116 bus from Middlebury to Burlington if members of the Teamsters Local 597 walk off the job, CCTA said in a statement this morning. CCTA operates the Montpelier LINK Express jointly with Green Mountain Transit Agency, whose non-union drivers are still working. Similarly, the Middlebury route is run in cooperation with the non-striking Addison Country Transit Resources.  

Here is the revised schedule.

But the rest of the nearly 10,000 people who board a CCTA bus every day would be effectively stranded if the union carries through with its threat to strike on Monday. CCTA pointed the finger squarely at the union, which has taken the agency to task for what it says are unfair work schedules and hostile management tactics.

Citing "the potential for the union to halt service," CCTA said it still believes a deal can be struck on Saturday.

"A labor action that disrupts the delivery of this vital public service is not a productive way to resolve the remaining differences," the statement said.

Middlebury voters on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to a controversial town building project that ignited debate for months in Addison County's shire town. By a margin of 915-798, voters approved a plan to construct new town offices and a recreation facility. 

But this wasn't your run-of-the-mill building project: The proposal, which had the backing of the majority of Middlebury's selectboard, calls for a complicated land swap with Middlebury College and generated considerable debate before Town Meeting Day.

The town is handing over the location of its current town offices, in exchange for property a stone's throw away at 77 Main Street. The town will now take out a $6.5 million bond to fund construction of new town offices at 77 Main, as well as new recreation facilities on Creek Road.

But the town won't be on the hook for the entire amount. The college is promising to pay $4.5 million of the debt, and to chip in an additional $1 million for relocation and demolition costs. 

Also on Tuesday, Middlebury voters ousted selectman Craig Bingham from the seven-member board. Bingham was the lone voice of dissent on the board against the town office plan. 

It's a plan that supporters spun as a win-win for the town and college; the college will turn the current site of the town offices into a public park, which will double as a more attractive entrance to the college campus proper. The college's financial contribution, in turn, is subsidizing the cost of new offices and rec facilities that officials say taxpayers couldn't otherwise afford.

The results of the South Burlington city council races indicate that sharp political divisions remain in place even as the tone of debates appears to be softening.

Council Chairwoman Pam Mackenzie's victory over two challengers in a race for a three-year seat ensures that the more conservative faction will retain its 3-2 majority. At the same time, Meaghan Emery's successful bid for a two-year seat will keep the more liberal minority at its current strength.

Emery, a former councilor, picked up 1,512 votes to the 1,439 won by her opponent, commercial real-estate agent Mike Simoneau. Mackenzie fell short of the 50 percent mark in her bid for re-election but still won comfortably, gaining 1,427 votes to 1,090 for Planning Commission Vice-Chair Tracey Harrington and 429 for former councilor Paul Engels.

Simoneau, a political ally of Mackenzie's, said the council chairwoman should not interpret her victory as a mandate. Emery agreed, suggesting, “A wise councilor will take heed” of the voters' refusal to give Mackenzie a majority of their votes.