Picket Lines Up in Yosemite’s First Walkout

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK —  Supervisors filled in for striking shuttle bus drivers and other Teamsters who walked off their jobs Friday in the first strike in this national park’s 95-year history.

Pickets demonstrated at nine job sites, but no services were interrupted, spokesmen for the national park and its concessionaire, the Yosemite Park & Curry Co., said.

The striking Teamsters Local 386 represents about 120 of the 1,600 employees of the Curry Co.

Alan Richmond, a spokesman for the Curry Co., said the firm had arranged to send in substitute bus and delivery truck drivers, maintenance workers and service station employees when the union notified management Thursday night that workers would walk out at 7 a.m. Friday.

‘Going on a Normal Basis’

“Things are going on a normal basis,” Richmond said. “We don’t anticipate any problems. We’re providing the same services that we provided before. There are not any cutbacks of any kind.”

“We haven’t had any problems,” said Lisa Dapprich, a spokeswomen for the National Park Service. “The shuttle buses are running on schedule, and none of the services has been interrupted.”

The park service contracts with the Curry Co., a subsidiary of the entertainment giant MCA, for general services not handled by rangers. The Curry Co. operates restaurants, stores, lodging and other services in the park.

The contract covering the striking employees expired last weekend, but the workers remained on the job while union and company negotiators continued bargaining through most of this week.

Contract Offer Rejected

The workers rejected a three-year contract offer that union officials said included 2% to 3% annual pay raises but also required the workers to begin paying half their medical insurance costs. Union officials said the company had paid the entire cost of the insurance under the previous contract.

Union officials originally said they would walk out on Thursday but instead went into another day of negotiations.

Richmond expressed a willingness on the part of the Curry Co. to reopen negotiations at any time, but no new talks were scheduled.

The strike coincides with a move by the park service to institute traffic controls in Yosemite Valley if weekend traffic gets too heavy. That plan could begin today, park service officials said.

Tourists in private cars will be barred from the park visitors’ center in the eastern half of valley unless they have a reserved room or campsite after rangers count 5,900 vehicles a day entering the park.