USC shuttle drivers call off strike, reach labor deal amid graduation festivities

University of Southern California shuttle drivers and dispatchers called off a strike they had planned early Friday after reaching a last-minute labor agreement promising wages increases among other benefits.

The tentative agreement marks the first deal for the workers represented by SEIU Local 721 since they voted to unionize in March 2023. They were set to walk off the job at 5:30 a.m. Friday in a one-day strike and later rally at the USC campus over unfair labor practices, a move that would have coincided with the university's commencement festivities and affected hundreds of passengers.

Roxane Marquez, a spokeswoman for the union, called the deal "a historic feat" that followed nearly nine months of negotiations with the university. In an email, she wrote that the university deliberately delayed the process by not providing necessary information and even "retaliated" against transportation workers by ending an annual merit-based pay increase that had been offered for two decades. But she indicated the new agreement fulfills all the concerns of drivers and dispatchers.

"We're pretty pleased with all elements of this first contract," Marquez wrote.

Among those elements are across-the-board wage increases for everyone "from the newest to the most senior drivers" as well as a quarterly bonus for drivers based on their safety record and a ratification bonus, according to Marquez. USC also agreed to union security, union access rights and covering employee travel time to break rooms as part of their lunch breaks.

Meanwhile, USC Transportation released a statement saying they were also content with the last round of negotiations.

"We are pleased that we were able to reach a tentative contract agreement with our shuttle drivers and avert a strike after a negotiation session on Thursday night," the statement reads. "The four-year contract provides a higher minimum wage, a ratification bonus and a split-shift differential."

USC and the transportation workers have been in negotiations since August, a lengthy period that the union contends was a result of the university's unwillingness to negotiate in good faith.

"Drivers and dispatchers had endured bad faith bargaining for basically the entire school year," Marquez wrote. "They joined our union last March and will now participate in their first ever contract ratification vote — a historic feat."

A union statement first announcing the strike said workers and their supporters were calling on President Carol Folt and university leadership "to show respect at the bargaining table and stop the university's unlawful behavior."

"We're fed up, and we're calling on USC leaders to do better," Chris Harris, a USC shuttle driver, said in the union's statement. "We're going on ULP strike because we're done with USC's delay tactics and lawbreaking."  

The recent negotiations with USC workers come as the university has faced criticism for its response to campus protests over the war in Gaza as well as its decision to cancel the class of 2024's official commencement ceremony. 

On Wednesday, the Academic Senate censured Folt and called for an investigation into the university's response to demonstrations.