Western Maine Transportation Services fixed route transit drivers rally Friday for a fair contract at 76 Merrow Road in Auburn. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

AUBURN — Bus drivers for Lewiston and Auburn’s Citylink service held a rally Friday as union members push for a new contract with better wages.

Drivers say that after unionizing last year, officials at Western Maine Transportation Services, which operates Citylink, have “refused to budge” on a fair contract. A little after 10 a.m. Friday, there were roughly 50 people outside the facility, with most wearing matching orange shirts and holding signs.

When reached Friday morning, Craig Zurhorst, community relations manager for WMTS, said the company “is continuing to bargain in good faith with the union,” and that the two parties would meet Friday to “make progress on their first contract.”

“Out of respect for our fixed route drivers operating out of the 76 Merrow Road facility and the union, we don’t intend to comment further,” he said.

A Citylink bus stops at the Great Falls Plaza station in Auburn in 2016. Sun Journal file photo

According to a news release from the Maine AFL-CIO, the Citylink drivers won a union election in November after a lengthy effort, joining the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 714, which represents roughly 150 transit drivers, mechanics and other staff across Maine.

Zurhorst said there are currently 14 Citylink drivers.

The Citylink drivers said they were inspired to unionize after a road supervisor who had supported unionizing was fired after “a first-offense.”

The Maine AFL-CIO said Citylink driver wages are below what drivers in similar-sized cities receive. Currently, Citylink fixed-route operator wages are $25.14 an hour. The union is seeking increases to $27 an hour in year one, rising to $29 an hour in year three.

When the successful union vote was announced, Citylink union leaders said their main priorities would be to negotiate higher wages, improve the company’s lines of communication, and restore personal days and paid holidays, which had been cut in 2023.

“It’s been a long process,” said ATU 714 President and Business Agent Joe Thomas. “Despite netting millions of state and federal dollars, the worker wages still do not match the value Citylink drivers in Lewiston-Auburn provide to the community. We’re at an impasse right now and we need to put as much pressure as we can on management to come to the table with a fair contract offer.”

The Maine AFL-CIO said a federal mediator is currently assisting in negotiations, but Thomas said, “at the end of the day, the mediator is an advisor, not a decider.”

The release said that shortly after the drivers unionized, WMTS also fired a union-supporting driver. The union filed an unfair labor practice complaint against WMTS with the National Labor Relations Board, which is expected to rule on the matter in the coming months. The union says “uncompetitive wages” have caused the organization to struggle with staffing issues.

The Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments, which oversees public transit in Lewiston and Auburn, conducted a transit study in 2020, and proposed an overhaul of Citylink’s route system in 2021. Some of the changes proposed were in response to low ridership.

Western Maine Transportation Services fixed route transit drivers rally Friday for a fair contract at 76 Merrow Road in Auburn. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

According to the study, the top five stops account for 62% of all boardings. Other stops only averaged less than one boarding per trip, or were in the single digits for boardings per week. The top two stops were the Oak Street hub in Lewiston, and the Auburn Walmart stop.

There are currently 10 routes, with eight routes running on Saturdays.

As of 2023, Citylink’s most-utilized routes were College Street, Mall Shuttle, Lisbon Street and the Auburn Mall route, each with between 2,400 and 4,800 rides monthly.

The Main Street and Sabattus Street routes each averaged a little more than 2,000 rides monthly, while the least utilized routes were Pettengill Park, Minot Avenue, Downtown Shuttle and New Auburn, each with between 300 to 1,500 rides monthly.

Citylink has been Lewiston and Auburn’s primary bus service since 1976, with system hubs at Oak Street in Lewiston and Great Falls Plaza in Auburn.