Samuel Messidor
After 3 weeks on strike, a California supreme court judge has ordered 1,500 San Jose transit workers—including drivers, rail operators, mechanics, and dispatchers—back to work on March 28.
The judge upheld a suit filed by The Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority (VTA), which employs the workers, that argued that the union violated a no-strike clause in the contract despite the contract having expired. No-strike clauses are a concession made by workers in union contracts which say that workers will not strike during the duration of said contracts unless the contract is breached.
The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 265 representing the workers filed an appeal of the ruling on April 2—not in order to return to the picket lines, according to the local leadership, but to protect the language of the contract. The courts rejected the appeal on April 11. It is unclear what further action the union will take, with the local union president simply saying that the workers had “lost all leverage” with the return to work order from the courts.
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers, 1500-strong, walked off the job and struck for the first time since the 1960s, according to the ATU. The workers first hit the picket lines on March 10 after months of unsuccessful contract talks and an overwhelming 96% strike authorization vote.
The VTA had offered paltry wage “increases” over 3 years totaling to half the union’s demand of an 18% increase. But according to the ATU local’s president, the main sticking point in the negotiations was the Authority’s refusal to allow an arbitration procedure for disciplinary review, allowing the company to derail grievance resolution processes.
From the outset of the strike, the VTA filed its lawsuits alleging the contract is still in effect, while also giving public money to Uber to “ease the loss of service” for riders, amounting to paltry $5 discounts limited to Uber trips to and from train or bus stops.
Barring “Unfair Labor Practices” strikes, workers laboring under no-strike clauses have to wait until contracts expire every few years in order to strike legally, penning in the workers’ room to maneuver in the economic guerrilla war between workers and bosses.
The common refrain of workers in such shops, “Get ready for a strike when this contract expires!” is upended by this ruling against the transit workers, which returns the expired contract from the grave. The ruling class is using its judiciary to hem in the workers’ struggle when their other ploys fail.
Photo: ATU Local 265 workers on strike in March, 2025. Retrieved from ATU Local 265 Instagram.
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