Overview
- A deal announced Friday ended a 10-day strike and will return regular bus service on Sunday for routes that had been largely halted since July 1.
- The one-year agreement guarantees wage increases and protections for health care and pension payouts for roughly 138 drivers and mechanics.
- Union members accepted a smaller hourly raise than they had sought, cutting a prior 15 percent demand to about a 12 percent increase under the short contract.
- The core conflict over converting volunteer Saturday overtime into regular scheduled shifts was postponed for future bargaining, a choice MeVa says creates budget and operational uncertainty.
- Ridership has jumped since MeVa went fare-free, leaving many riders dependent on buses and raising the stakes for any future scheduling or service changes across the Merrimack Valley.