Automation Protection Headlines New Contract for Local 1707

The members of SMART-TD Local 1707 (Perris, California) who work for First Transit have ratified a new four-year contract. The agreement provides significant gains while, most importantly, not making any concessions! 

The agreement includes: 

• A significant, compounded pay increase over the lifetime of the contract, with retroactive pay from July 1, 2025. 
• An additional paid holiday. 
• Health and welfare improvements, including up to 40 hours of sick leave. 
• Improvements to bereavement leave, giving members the ability to use it non-consecutively and additional consideration for traveling over 300 miles in one direction.  
• Release time for local officers (presidents, secretaries, and treasurers) to attend trainings to sharpen their leadership skills. 

Automation Protections Lead the List of Contract Wins

One of the most important wins in the agreement covers automation protections for members, where the company is required to give 30 days’ notice and bargain with the union over how certain employees will be affected.  
 
“On this property, we don’t just have drivers. We have all work classifications,” explained General Committee of Adjustment (GCA) 020 General Chairperson Justin Schrock. “[For example], we have customer service representatives, and they’re worried that the automation programming that they’re going to start using is going to limit their job. So that was one of the main reasons we put that in there.” 
 
“If a job’s affected, then you’ve got to bargain with us on that employee. Do we retrain them somewhere else in another position?” 
 
The negotiating team was led by GC Schrock and assisted by SMART-TD Bus Department Vice President James Sandoval, LCA 020U (First Transit) Local Chairperson Rickey Davis, and LCA 020U (First Transit) Vice Local Chairperson and Local 1707 President Averiel Mason.

Local Leadership Makes a Big Difference

Since 2020, GC Schrock noted that there’s been an incredibly significant increase in pay raises for the property, even without considering compounding increases, a trend that he hopes will continue.  
 
“We just continue to make progress on this property and bring them up to the livable standard that we all expect as professional drivers and professional transit members,” he said.  
 
In particular, he recognized the leadership of Davis and Vice LC/Local 1707 President Mason for their extra effort in communicating with the membership. Their ability to ensure member’s needs were understood and addressed was invaluable.  
 
“We knew automation was going to be a big deal, but we listened to our members and pretty much hit on everything they wanted,” Schrock explained. “It’s easy for James and me to sit in an office and think we know what they want, but for them to actually take the time to go to meetings and talk to everybody and hit on stuff that they were concerned about was huge out of that officer team.”  
 
Congratulations to Local 1707 for becoming the latest addition to SMART-TD’s list of newly ratified, precedent-setting agreements!