151 Collier transit workers face layoffs in contract shift

More than 150 contract employees assigned to Collier Area Transit’s East Naples facility will be laid off in late September when a seven-year operating contract ends. 

Many of the workers at the 8300 Radio Road facility, which dispatches CAT and CATConnect paratransit buses, could be hired by the new contractor, San Francisco-based WeDriveU, a subsidiary of Mobico Group. Since the Aug. 11 Board of County Commissioners meeting was canceled, the contract will be approved in absentia by County Manager Amy Patterson on that day and ratified by the full board at its next meeting, Aug. 25. 

Dallas-based MV Transportation Inc. filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, letter with the state July 30, saying it plans to lay off 151 workers, including 112 drivers, on Sept. 30 or within 14 days. The federal WARN Act requires companies with at least 100 employees to provide 60 days’ notice before large layoffs or plant closings. 

The WARN letter says employees losing their jobs because of the contract change have no “bumping rights” to other MV Transportation positions, and the layoffs are expected to be permanent. Most of the affected workers, 128, are represented by the Transport Workers Union of America. 

In addition to drivers, the layoffs include seven dispatchers, four reservationists, four customer service representatives, two accounting clerks, managers, a utility worker and several other positions. Neither MV Transportation nor WeDriveU responded to requests for comment. 

County commissioners extended MV Transportation’s contract for a seventh time last August, adding 12 months while the county completed the procurement process. 

“Staff are currently finalizing the procurement of a new operations contract,” Transit Manager Omar DeLeon wrote in a memo to commissioners last August. “This extension will provide sufficient time to properly complete the procurement process and ensure uninterrupted service by having a new Collier Area Transit Operations Management Services contract in place.” 

The extension increased the contract by $988,892.34 to $12.187 million, primarily for transportation operations management services. MV Transportation has operated the contract since 2019. 

TWU Local 525 President Kevin P. Smith said the new contract is expected to go to WeDriveU, but the company has not responded to the union’s requests to discuss wages or whether current employees will be rehired. 

“We know it’s about pricing,” Smith said. “The county is trying to contain pricing and, obviously, … your goal is to keep your employees happy and get wage increases in times that they deserve a wage increase.” 

Collier County began shifting to priority-based budgeting in 2023 through ResourceX, a Tyler Technologies company, and formally hired the firm in September 2024. 

“We don’t understand how the employer is going to function by paying cheaper,” Smith said. “When these contracts are acquired, the incoming company comes in and can do whatever they want, including not recognizing us and then bargaining individually with the employees, which never works out good.” 

Rather than notifying employees directly, Smith said, MV Transportation asked the union to deliver news of the layoffs. The union represents fixed-route and paratransit drivers, dispatchers, reservationists and the service crew, which cleans the buses, but not mechanics and other employees. 

Unlike workers covered by federal service contracts, he said, these employees have no wage or benefit protections when a new contractor takes over. As a result, he has advised union MV employees to tell WeDriveU to reach out to him. He said WeDriveU may hire the majority of drivers but fill other positions with its own employees, leaving some current workers without jobs. He added that it’s unusual the company hasn’t contacted the union, which incoming contractors typically do. 

“We’re hoping that they reach out very soon and start a dialogue and make sure that we understand exactly what their intentions are,” he said, adding the union wants WeDriveU to recognize its agreement, which includes wages, sick leave, PTO, jury duty and other benefits. “If they’re looking to save, then the only way they can save is to cut those things that help them save. If they want to play that way, they run the risk of not being able to fulfill the county’s requirements (on the first day).” 

Union sites show WeDriveU employees elsewhere have had to fight for higher wages. 

After years of negotiations and delays, SMART, the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union, announced last month that a local union in Van Nuys, California, ratified a contract with WeDriveU’s bus drivers and dispatchers that includes an “immediate, significant” hourly wage increase and just-cause job protections. 

In 2023, about 50 WeDriveU shuttle drivers represented by Teamsters Local 727 in Chicago “voted overwhelmingly” to authorize an unfair labor practice strike, according to the union’s website. The drivers, who provided public transportation, accused WeDriveU of bargaining in bad faith, paying low wages, refusing to bargain in person, arriving late and unprepared, and often taking hours to caucus. Facing a strike, WeDriveU settled.