Aug. 3 Media Statement
On Friday, July 31, MV Transportation and representatives of ATU Local 1208 resumed negotiations with a federal mediator, as MV had proposed many weeks ago.
During the meeting, both parties agreed to implement safety policies already in place at several of MV’s highest-performing and safest operations across the country. MV also further enhanced its wage proposal by increasing wages AGAIN in 2026 and 2027. Under MV’s latest proposal, starting rates will move from $17.18 per hour today to $23.34 by January 2028 while top rate senior teammates would increase from $23.00 per hour to $27.58 per hour over the same time period — higher than the union’s last proposal.
MV’s comprehensive proposal also includes up to six weeks of vacation, 12 sick days, 13 paid holidays, a 97% company contribution toward employee only medical coverage, up to a 100% 401(k) match, enhanced training and the hiring of additional drivers to help address workforce shortages identified by the union.
Despite this significant progress, the meeting ended abruptly Friday evening when ATU Local 1208 President Charles Tornes walked out of negotiations without presenting a counterproposal.
Then, on Monday afternoon, MV received a new union proposal, in which the union did not include the federal mediator, that was clearly regressive. The new proposal rescinded the union’s July 31 agreement to accept MV’s safety policy (which ATU locals observe across the country) and also substituted the union’s own wage proposal with a new, higher demand that was never discussed on Friday. Sadly, these regressive moves are the definition of bad faith bargaining and suggest that local union leaders are actively working to prevent a deal, at the expense of their own members and our valued passengers. These tactics have already cost MV’s unionized teammates thousands of dollars in proposed wage increases that the local union leadership refuses to accept.
MV remains ready to return to the bargaining table at any time. In the meantime, MV teammates have worked extraordinarily hard to ensure that 100% of all fixed-route and 100% of all paratransit services continue to operate — no one is missing an appointment or ride to work, thanks to these efforts. Beyond that, on-time performance is meeting or exceeding pre-strike levels, and our safety performance has improved from pre-strike levels. While we hope that we can resolve the strike soon through common sense and good faith discussions, we will continue to provide the service Jackson needs, as we have since this unfortunate and unnecessary strike began.