11th-Hour Talks at Yosemite Fail

A last-ditch effort to avert a strike at Yosemite National Park failed Thursday, and Teamsters Union officials now say their walkout--which would be the first in the park’s 95-year history--is scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. today.

The strike would involve more than 120 tour bus operators, mechanics, gasoline station attendants and maintenance workers employed by the Yosemite Park & Curry Co., the concession operators for the national park.

Harvey Killman, secretary-treasurer for Teamsters Local 386 in Modesto, said the strike is being called because “management refused to budge from its demand that we end our tradition of a company-paid medical program and force our members to pay half of the insurance premiums that now cost $225 a month.”

Wages are not in dispute, however. Teamsters now earn $10.78 an hour, and were offered pay hikes totaling 7% over the next three years.

Killman said the strike is being called this week because “we want the general public to have advance warning of it before the usual rush starts on Memorial Day weekend.” That is one of the park’s busiest times of the year, with an estimated 75,000 visitors expected.

The Curry Co. has said that it will continue operations if the Teamsters walk out.

Killman charged that the Curry Co. is training “secretaries, clerks and anyone else it can get as strikebreakers to drive the buses and perform the other work of our members.”