Loudoun County Transit workers end strike, will return to work March 20

The letter does not indicate what prompted the decision to end the strike; union members have yet to vote on any contract offer from Keolis.

"Our members have fought incredibly hard through the toughest of the winter," union spokesperson Matthew Girardi told the Times-Mirror after the letter was distributed. "We believe that we do not have to have our members out on strike at this moment and moreover, want for all of them to reap some of the benefits of Keolis’ concessions on the economics of their proposal."

Keolis released a statement that said the company "is pleased to welcome back our employees as we restore transit services. Thank you to our passengers for their patience while we worked with our partners to negotiate the best possible contract terms for our valued teams."

Local 689 represents about 160 Keolis employees in Loudoun and has been negotiating terms for a three-year contract since late last summer. The news that the strike is ending came exactly three weeks after Keolis gave its “last, best and final offer" that the company said would make its employees “the highest-paid [transit workers] in Northern Virginia.”

Seventy-nine union members signed a petition rejecting that offer out of hand, and a Keolis-imposed March 3 ratification deadline passed without putting the offer to a vote. After the March 3 deadline, Keolis said that negotiations had reached an "impasse," while the union rejected that characterization. 

After March 3, Keolis implemented the terms of its contract offer to any employee who wanted to return to work even without a collective bargaining agreement in place. More than 80 union-represented employees crossed the picket line, according to the company, although the union disputed that claim.

A similar labor dispute in Prince William County, where Keolis also operates the public bus service on behalf of the county, ended March 12 after members of Teamsters 639, the union representing those workers, voted to end a month-long strike and accept a contract offer from Keolis.

The contract offer from Keolis to its Loudoun employees includes 10% pay increases for all employees retroactive to July 2022, guaranteed 4% raises in each of the next two years. In the final year of the contract, local-route drivers with at least four years of employment will make $36 an hour; commuter-bus drivers will make $40. The company will also pay 80% of health insurance premiums for family plans and match 401(k) contributions up to 5%.

Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall, who, like other county officials, has emphasized that the county is not a party in contract negotiations, said that it is her understanding that the ATU wants to come back to the negotiating table. "The strike went on for two months — it was very, very hard on workers and their families," she told the Times-Mirror. She added that "the vast majority of the emails that we received, in my office at least, were on the side of the ATU employees." 

Service updates are available at loudoun.gov/buschanges.