Frias cabbies may stage strike

Unhappy with a contract forced on them by their union hierarchy, a group of Frias Transportation Management taxi drivers has started laying the groundwork for a wildcat strike that could start this week during the NCAA Tournament, one of the year’s top tourist draws.

At a Tuesday night meeting of about 200 drivers represented by the United Steelworkers, nearly all raised their hands when a member of the local negotiating committee asked whether they supported a walkout. The drivers will meet again tonight for what they depicted as a final decision on how to proceed. Some raised the possibility of launching the strike by returning their cars to the Frias yard in the middle of their shifts.

Because United Steelworkers Union leadership has not sanctioned the action, drivers who stop work would face immediate termination and receive no strike pay or other support.

But Yonas Tessema, a member of the negotiating committee, depicted a strike as a way to pressure the company into reopening talks and improving the terms.

The critical question of how many drivers would join a wildcat strike was guesswork among the drivers Tuesday.

Frias is the largest cab company in Las Vegas, holding nearly 30 percent of the 2,410 operating permits known as medallions. Of about 1,900 Frias drivers, it is estimated that from about 1,000 to 1,300 of them belong to the Steelworkers union.

Frias management did not return calls seeking comment.

Yellow Checker Star Transportation, the second-largest company with one-fourth of the medallions, has been grappling with its own drivers strike since March 3. Few effects have been reported by various visitor venues, partly because the Nevada Taxicab Authority issued 20 extra medallions to each of the 13 cab brands normally operating.

Some local union members were angered that Steelworkers district director Robert LaVenture in Albuquerque, N.M., signed the terms of Frias’ final offer on March 11. The offer had been submitted the previous week after federal mediation made no headway. In doing so, LaVenture bypassed the typical procedure of letting members vote on the terms.

“They did us down and dirty,” driver Sarah Hall said Wednesday. “I lost my faith in the union. If this was such a great contract, why didn’t they let us vote on it.”

Jeff Waddoups, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas economics professor, said that ratification votes are normally held on union contracts.

“Labor unions are supposed to be democratic from the ground up,” he said.

Steelworkers district and national officials did not return calls seeking comment.

But in a letter to members dated March 11, LaVenture contended that a possible strike was being propelled by the “misinformation and the misguided goals of some of the bargaining committee and individuals in and out of the union.”

Signing the contract, he continued, served the “best interest of the majority and not the minority. Although some of you may disagree with this decision, we ask all of you to give the new contract a chance.”

Hall said the local team had only sought strike authorization as a bargaining lever.

“We don’t want to go on strike,” she said.

The first Frias contract proposal drew a 99 percent “no” vote from drivers in October, according to the union. But that contract included clauses to dilute the importance of seniority in bidding for the best shifts and cars. Those clauses were removed in the new contract.

Contact reporter Tim O’Reiley at
toreiley@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290.