JTRAN buses will not be running their usual routes in Mississippi’s capital city for the time being due to a strike by union workers.
Early Wednesday morning, JTRAN employees and the Amalgamated Transit Union were spotted protesting at JTRAN’s Highway 80 headquarters. The workers, ranging from bus drivers to custodial staff, accused JTRAN’s parent company, MV Transportation, of unfair treatment of its employees.
MV Transportation took over JTRAN in January. Since then, workers have called out sick en masse on multiple occasions. Sources close to the situation tell SuperTalk Mississippi News that workers have been punished for taking time off of work, missing work for previously scheduled medical appointments, and asking for future days off.
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Those on strike are hoping to gain the attention and respect of executives in hopes of getting their demands met. MV Transportation has issued the following lengthy statement:
“MV Transportation has partnered with the City of Jackson since January 2024 to manage the city’s fixed route and paratransit services. We are deeply disappointed the union has chosen to execute a strike, placing an unnecessary burden on those who rely on our services to get to work, school, and life-saving appointments.
We want to be clear about the reason for this unnecessary and counterproductive strike. Over the last several months, the union has made a number of inaccurate or baseless charges, and we have patiently corrected the record. Despite those misrepresentations, we have engaged in constructive negotiations to address outstanding issues for a collective bargaining agreement between MV and the union. Through those efforts, we have agreed on dozens of issues and only have one unresolved CBA provision, literally involving just one word.
You may wonder, what was the one word that was so bad that the union would not agree or even continue to negotiate? Simply put, MV believes strongly that certain unsafe behaviors ‘will‘ lead to an employee no longer providing service to the people of Jackson – not, as the union insisted, ‘may’ be terminated in order to create an excuse
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