Disgruntled Decamp employees have been protesting outside their company’s Greenwood Avenue, Montclair headquarters — and at a higher profile location on Grove Street (just south of Walnut) — since 5 a.m. on day one of their first strike since 1982. According to John A. Costa, Chairman/State Business Agent for the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), De Camp workers want to negotiate and get back to the job quickly — if the owners of the privately held company will talk.”These people aren’t happy to be out here losing money, but more than 85% of our Union membership backed the strike,” he said, indicating the two dozen or so picketers.
The two parties are scheduled to sit down together on Tuesday, and Costa wants the governor to mediate. We’ve placed a call to Governor Christie’s office to convey ATU’s invitation and are waiting for their response. Costa says he also asked for help from NJ Transit Executive Director James Weinstein, who is part of the same union, but hasn’t yet heard back.
Among many detailed complaints that the ATU listed in a written statement, is the fact that the company wants to implement a 5- year contract without an increase in wages for that time period. Additionally, De Camp wants to radically revise the health plan with a large initial deductible. In this same document, the union states its own demands, which include a $.45 per hour increase each year for the next two years. According to their statement, the wage rate for bus operators over the past 6 years has been increased by a total of $1.75/hour.
“De Camp won’t open their books, so we have no way of knowing whether or not the company is in dire financial straits,” explained Costa. “If they fairly disclosed their profits it might help us understand their situation better.”
As it looks right now, the strikers will be out picketing with their rat and not working all weekend. In the meantime, they say De Camp is paying non-union part time employees $15/hour to drive shuttles into the city. “These workers have been given an ultimatum — either cross the picket line and drive now, or lose your job,” stated Costa.
As the union leaders shouted into megaphones and picketers chanted their slogans in the sweltering heat, cars, trucks and passersby honked and yelled support. The riders we spoke to this morning were of mixed sympathies — some in support of the employees and some not so much. Costa hopes that riders will call the De Camp owners, primarily Vice President of Operations Gary Pard, to express their concerns about service and encourage them to get back to the negotiating table to resolve the issues. When Baristanet tried to talk with Pard or other De Camp management, security guards advised that we must leave the property immediately. As we stepped off the property, the employees looked on with understanding and said, “You see, this is what it’s like to deal with them. They won’t talk.”
Deep within the halls of Decamp Drivers’ Union 101
Head of the Union: OK! The protest and strike are set to go off tomorrow. Soon we will have all that we desire!
Lackey 1: Hey, boss… Deez mugs what we give vroom-vroom wants us be make con-… con… condensations afore they give us ok.
Head: Condensations? Oh, consolations! That seems fair. What do they want?
Lackey 2: (willfully ignores the question)
Head: *A-HEM*
Lackey 2: (continues to willfully ignore the question and starts singing “The Wheels on the Bus” over the dispatch radio.
Head: Great, he thinks he’s at work. I know what will endear the riders of De Camp to our cause… The RAT! Everyone loves animals!
Just out of curiosity, is that Chevy Avalanche one of the drivers’ cars? Could someone please explain to me why I pay more for the privilege of having my high school educated bus driver be late and rude to customers, run people off the road, and be able to afford a much better quality of life than me, while I’ve made less every year than the year before for the last four years and drive a 12-year-old beater with 270,000 miles on it?
Just out of curiosity, is that Chevy Avalanche one of the drivers’ cars?
Ooooh, a version of the old “welfare queen driving a cadillac.” I haven’t seen that applied to union members before, so good one.
The assumption that Decamp is paying these drivers enough already is just that: an assumption.
Makes perfect sense to me when the Unemployment Rate is >9% and you’re only skill set is driving a bus to call a strike.
I thought the rat was used to protest non-union labor?
“Could someone please explain to me…”
I’ll try. It seems that the skill of driving a bus to and from the city is of more value to the general public than whatever skills you are offering.
Deal with it or learn how to drive a bus.
No sympathies for these dumb asses from me. Don’t like your job, your pay? Then go and work for a competitor and find another occupation. Many out-of-work folks would be tickled pink to have a job, any job, right now and these guys walk off of theirs and alienate their loyal customer base. Doesn’t sound very bright to me.
At leaat the rat isn’t on strike…He pops up everywhere.
Good luck with that one.
Don’t even write, don’t even call. Business as usual for Gary Pard. The man is doing a terrible job and must either step down voluntarily or be dismissed. What has he got to hide that he won’t talk with B-net or with any other member of the media? Why won’t DeCamp disclose its profits? Something smells rotten to me.
Looks like HTML doesn’t work in this new format, am I right? Tried to block off the quotes.
The rat’s raking it in. One gig after the other with all the leftovers he can ear.
Those guys sitting outside of Park Ave. BMW dealership with their signs every morning could drive the buses – they apparently have nothing else to do.
Good one, MrsMartyPants. I bet, during the ’80s, you’d stop someone carrying a ghetto blaster, and tell him “I bet you wouldn’t take a job that involved lifting anything that heavy!”. And, BTW, “attempts by Baristanet to interview…”. Uh, no. that’s usually reserved for legitimate media. Not “me, toos”.