Eagle Rock, Highland Park Affected by Transit Strike Thursday

Written and reported by City News Service

A strike by employees of a city bus contractor brought some downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood and South Los Angeles DASH routes to a halt today.

A little over half the routes and about 21,000 riders have been impacted, according to Department of Transportation spokesman Clinton Quan.

The labor dispute is between city contractor Veolia, which operates buses on the routes, and its employees' union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 572, whose members walked off the job this morning.

Veolia representatives said the strike was "sudden" and came as they were undergoing "productive discussions" with the union and as some wage increases were being offered.

"Veolia's proposal to the union, which has been described as 'very generous' by union leaders, has twice been recommended for approval by the union's leadership to its membership only to be voted down because of internal local union issues unrelated to the offer made," according to a statement released by the company.

Two unions recently merged to form Local 572, and the negotiating parties had been discussing combining two prior labor agreements, according to Veolia representatives.

The Teamsters were not immediately available for comment.

According to the city, some services are still available aboard the DASH Downtown Routes D and E, and parts of Route F are still being served. DASH Downtown Routes A and B are not operating.

Other DASH routes that stopped operating are the Crenshaw, King-East, Hollywood, Midtown, Highland Park/Eagle Rock, Lincoln Heights/Chinatown, Los Feliz, Wilshire Center/Koreatown, Fairfax and Leimert/Slauson.

Bus service for Beachwood Canyon, Hollywood/Wilshire and Southeast/Pueblo del Rio will have limited hours.

Quan said the city was not warned about the strike and will try to keep riders updated about service disruptions.

Veolia representatives said the strike may go on for several more days and they are using employees that are still reporting to work -- including some who have crossed the picket lines -- to resume service.

Eight routes handled by another contractor were not impacted by the strike.