CCTA Bus Driver Strike Averted

Chittenden County Transportation Authority officials say an eleventh-hour agreement has averted a bus driver strike that threatened to disrupt about 9,000 commuters in northwest Vermont.

After about 10 hours of talks aided by a federal mediator, representatives of the transit agency and Teamsters Local 597 - which represents the 62 drivers - said late Thursday they had generally agreed on the terms of a new contract and the threat of a strike starting at midnight had passed.

Meredith Birkett is acting general manager of the CCTA, and said the union and the authority agreed on the fundamentals of a three-year contract retroactive to July 1, but the language still needs to be finalized.

Last weekend, a majority of the drivers voted against a contract proposal negotiated by union leaders.