HAVERHILL — To end the strike and get buses rolling again, Teamsters Local 170 drivers and mechanics voted for a one-year contract that would keep Saturday overtime work as is and give them about a 12% raise.
It now falls to the MeVa negotiating team to accept or to reject the offer.
“The union workers are taking less money so they can get back to work and resume serving the riders they love and care for,” said Jim Marks, Local 170 business agent.
MeVa ‘s administrator, Noah Berger, said the management team is reviewing the proposal.
Marks said the agreement, if approved by MeVa, will give the two sides a year to sort out the overtime issue.
Thursday was Day 9 of the strike.
It has ground bus service to a halt in the Merrimack Valley and left some of the most vulnerable people in the population without transportation to work, doctor’s appointments and food shopping.
A press conference is scheduled for 4 p.m. outside MeVa headquarters at 85 Railroad Ave. in Haverhill.
At 3:45 strikers were still walking the picket line, and anxiously awaiting word on whether they would be going back to work.