AUSTIN, Texas — If you take Capital Metro's buses or trains, your next ride could be in jeopardy.
You may have seen the protest on Wednesday. Dozens of CapMetro drivers are wearing black under their eyes to show their solidarity and to protest ongoing contract negotiations.
"No one's happy about that at all," said Gene Harkey, a driver who's been working at CapMetro for two years.
"We're here to serve the public. We realize we are public servants, and we take that with pride," said Garry Simples, another driver.
"We work extra hours. We log long hours and the compensation is not what it should be," explained Harkey.
All of this is why they protested on Wednesday.
"That's what the black eye thing is about – our benefits, our pay and our work ethic," said Anna Hodge. "It's just going downhill."
"The eye black today symbolizes the fight that we're in with MV [Transportation] to honor their agreement," explained Simples.
They said drivers that work at the northern bus depot make less money than those with equal experience who drive for the south bus depot.
Since September they've been working to make wages equal. That's when the contract negotiations started.
"It's time to reach some kind of climax," said Brent Payne, the president for the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) local 1091.
The ATU is the union that represents everyone who works in CapMetro that's not management.
Payne said the current contract being negotiated needs to be raised to keep workers in buses.
"We will send it to our members. If they don't ratify it, I will ask my members to authorize me to call a strike," said Payne.
MV Transportation, the company the union is negotiating with, said in a statement on Wednesday it doesn't expect "any union-led disruption of service."
CapMetro is hoping that's the case. It said MV agreed to bridge the wage gap and there is "no reason to believe that is not the case."
But for the drivers, the closer we get, they need to see it to believe it.
"Ninety-five percent of people are very upset and ready to take drastic [measures] to get something done," said Harkey.
"The public need to know that ... we don't want to stall people's lives, but our lives are being messed around with too," added Hodge.
The union and MV Transportation will be meeting again on Thursday and the union president expects a final offer from them Friday before 5 p.m.
PHOTOS: CapMetro workers hold black eye protest
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