Judge orders VTA Transit Workers’ Strike to End

Author: E. Cherkuri, Megaphone Staff Writer

This Friday, the strike by the Amalgamated Transit Union, the largest union that represents transit workers in the U.S. and in Canada was ordered to end. This comes after a VTA began negotiating a new contract with the ATU in August of 2024, which was roughly seven months before the end of the term of the 2022-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement. In response to these negotiations and the lack of compromises that the two groups could agree on, in late February, ATU members voted to approve a potential strike. Negotiations continued without resolution, and more than 1500 VTA employees, represented by the ATU, walked off the job just after midnight on March 10th, 2025. During the strike, all buses and light rail throughout Santa Clara County were out of service, leaving an estimated 100,000 riders without transportation every day. 

Two weeks after the beginning of the strike, Raj Singh, president of the ATU issued a statement saying, “Our members want to get back to work. The service our members provide this community is invaluable, and our customers have suffered greatly these past two weeks,” Singh also described communications with as “aggressive bargaining,” including that the VTA declined to guarantee workers wouldn’t be disciplined for striking after returning to work, refused to drop its lawsuit to stop the strike, as well as overtime restrictions. VTA workers’ specific requests can be found here.

In response to the strike, VTA sued the union on the first day of the strike, alleging that “the work stoppage violated a no-strike clause in the bargaining agreement between the agency and ATU”. A county judge rejected VTA’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt the strike on March 17, but asked the ATU to come back to court on Wednesday to argue why the strike is not a violation of their agreement with the VTA. Later, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Daniel T. Nishigaya ruled that Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority employees will need to return to work immediately, but it wasn’t clear how long it would take for all transit services to resume. “The court does believe that there is at least a reasonable interpretation of the collective bargaining agreement that would lead to the conclusion that the agreement, including the no-strike provision, remains in full force in effect until agreement is reached,” Nishigaya said. The ruling comes two days after ATU members roundly rejected the latest contract offer from the VTA, with more than 80% of those who voted shooting it down. Leaders of the ATU Local 265, said they were disappointed in the outcome.

However, the light rail continues to be out of service, as during the strikes, thieves stole so much copper wire off of the tracks during the strike that the trains cannot run, so they will be out of service until the wire is replaced.