[lbi_editorial_note inner_content=”Use both mugs in Production to help fill space.” timestamp=”4:34pm on July 13, 2015″]
Help needed
Contract talks between leaders of Capital Area Transit System employees union and the bus system’s administration are gearing up again. Negotiations over a new union contract broke down early last month, when union leaders reportedly walked out of a meeting with CATS CEO Bob Mirabito, whom they accused of intimidation tactics. In the weeks since, CATS board chair Donna Collins-Lewis says she has met several times with Mirabito and has been trying to find ways to repair frayed relations between the agency’s top brass and its rank and file. To that end, Collins-Lewis has asked Mirabito to bring in a conflict resolution expert to meet with all the system’s employees in hopes of easing ongoing tension. “We need to do some conflict resolution to quell that sense of us versus them, the administration versus the operators,” says Collins-Lewis, who also serves on the Metro Council. “Bob works for CATS. The operators work for CATS. They all work for the same agency … and we’ve got to get it together.” No one has yet been retained to provide the services and no timeline for any meetings among CATS employees has been scheduled.
—Stephanie Riegel
