SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – The Valley Transportation Authority is pushing back on what its largest union claims was the reason an agency bus driver allegedly threatened to shoot his workplace last week.
Agency officials told Bay Area News Group on Sunday that Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 made "public false assertions" a day prior when the union said in a Facebook post that Douglas Lofstrom – the arrested employee – "was facing pressures from VTA management to get vaccinated" against COVID-19 or else "he would be terminated."
VTA spokesperson Stacy Hendler Ross told the newspaper group that the "violent threats" were "unacceptable," as was "the behavior and continued blame by ATU leadership who has worked to thwart the progress to protect employees rather than advance it."
"We are working diligently through various options for those not yet vaccinated; however, public false assertions do not benefit the process," Hendler Ross said. "VTA is carefully implementing policies and working with our employees to make sure we have the safest conditions for employees and our passengers."
The agency didn't respond to KCBS Radio’s emailed request for comment prior to publication on Monday night.
Santa Clara Sheriff's deputies arrested Lofstrom last Friday morning on suspicion of making a criminal threat of gun violence at a San Jose bus yard, nearly a month after the first anniversary of a VTA employee killing nine colleagues at a city rail yard before dying by suicide.
The sheriff’s office didn't respond to KCBS Radio's emailed request for comment about Lofstrom's motive on Monday. Lofstrom is set to appear in court on Tuesday afternoon, according to sheriff's records, and he is being held on $25,000 bail.
The union said last Saturday morning that it "does not condone anyone making threats," adding that officials have "pleaded with VTA not to put undue pressure on unvaccinated workers with threats of termination."
"ATU requested a weekly testing option instead," the union said in a statement. "We are worried the next person subjected to unnecessary stress from VTA management and contemplating harm may not say anything."
ATU added that "we are no longer in a vaccination crisis" but in a "mental health crisis." John Courtney, the union's president whom Bay Area News Group attributed its statement to, told KCBS Radio last month that workplace culture issues – including bullying and harassment from managers – haven't been addressed in the wake of last year’s deadly shooting.
VTA officials told Bay Area News Group that 95% of the agency's employees are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus after an April mandate went into effect. Hendler Ross said the unvaccinated employees have been assigned disciplinary hearings but have not been fired.
The agency didn't respond to KCBS Radio's emailed request for comment about the number and status of its unvaccinated employees.
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