Santa Clara VTA strike enters its second week, leaving public transit riders stranded
The strike by Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority workers moved into its second week on Monday as bus and light rail riders in the South Bay continue to use other modes of transportation to get around.
VTA workers including operators, maintenance staff, dispatchers, fare inspectors and customer service representatives
began striking early Monday morning
last week. Transit officials and Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 265 representatives have been unable to reach a deal after months of negotiations. The VTA workers' latest contract expired a week before the strike commenced.
1,500 employees are on strike demanding higher wages and third-party arbitration. The strike has shut down public transit service for 100,000 daily riders in Santa Clara County.
On Saturday, the transit agency
sent a letter
to Governor Gavin Newsom asking for a fact-finding investigation to help end the strike.
The VTA called on the governor to order drivers and operators back to work while talks continue.
Almost a week ago, the VTA
filed a legal complaint over the ongoing strike
, announcing that the union was in breach of the "no strike" clause in the parties' agreement. However, on Sunday that complaint stalled in court when Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Daniel Nishigaya denied the VTA's request for an injunction on the grounds that the filing isn't compliant with California's Rules of Court.
Nishigaya wrote Sunday the transit agency can receive a decision after it resubmits a proper application.
Union workers are expected to give an update on negotiations Monday evening.
Bay City News contributed to this report.
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'Unfortunately, dollars speak louder than tradition.' One hurdle for advocates of a film tax credit is the perception that the program is a subsidy for glitzy Los Angeles studio execs and celebrities, a view that stoked regional rivalries with representatives from other parts of the state. This time, Newsom put a marker down in October — days before he knew the outcome of the presidential election and months before the typical budget negotiating season — about his intention to more than double the tax incentive, which currently sits at $330 million. 'We made a decision … to put a stake in the ground and go,' said DeeDee Myers, Newsom's chief economic adviser. 'That will give us time to make the case, to educate people, and it's also a signal to the industry: 'Hey, we've got your back, and help is on the way.'' The goal of $750 million has remained unchanged, even as the state's budget outlook darkened dramatically in recent months, setting off fierce battles for funding among competing Democratic interest groups. Newsom and his legislative partners have tried to avoid the usual political tripwires. To entice lawmakers far from Hollywood's center, they proposed a bonus for productions filmed outside of the 30-mile zone encircling Los Angeles. They made union entertainment workers, not studio bosses or celebrities, the face of their campaign. By portraying the incentive as a middle-class jobs program, they've largely neutralized objections from elsewhere in organized labor, which would otherwise target the tax credit as a corporate giveaway. 'This was the story of hundreds of union workers who have had to mortgage homes and foreclose on their homes and move to different states because of just how slow the business is,' said Budnick, an advocate for getting formerly incarcerated people into the pipeline for industry jobs. Hollywood hopes collide with Sacramento reality As budget negotiations careen toward a June 15 spending plan deadline, Newsom is trying to assure the anxious industry he'll be able to deliver. His office reiterated on Thursday he is 'fully committed' to securing a revamped $750 millon credit. Even if Newsom is able to claim victory in the final gauntlet of budget negotiations, it's far from assured that the effort will break through Hollywood's current malaise. A panel of top studio executives at the ritzy Milken Global Issues conference last month offered a stark illustration of the gap between Hollywood's expectations and the realities in Sacramento. Casey Bloys, who runs HBO, lamented how California's tax credits — which are capped and distributed via lottery — compared to Georgia's uncapped incentive program. 'Because it's capped, you can't plan,' Bloys said. 'You have to get into a lottery, and you're not sure if your show is going to get the tax break or not.' But an uncapped tax credit was never in the cards in California, especially in this fraught budget year. Newsom is betting that he can make at least some headway in pulling Hollywood out of its doldrums. But that success depends on the studios actually being open to returning to California — or if the enticements from outside its borders prove too tempting to pass up. 'My sense is that people throughout the industry — from the folks building sets to studio execs — recognize that Newsom is doing more than any governor in memory to try and save California's entertainment industry,' said Brian Brokaw, a Newsom adviser who sits on the California Film Commission. 'Ultimately what this will come down to is whether those who actually make the decisions about where to shoot share the governor's commitment to California.' The exodus of production from the state may be so long gone that nothing Newsom does now will substantially reverse the tide. But perhaps the governor's film tax flex could at least quell some uncomfortable questions about Hollywood flight under his watch — particularly if he wants to tout his record in a 2028 White House run. 'If he's going to run for president, this is gonna come up,' said Rushfield, the longtime industry watcher. 'And he's got to be able to say that he tried.'
