e The Epitaph
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Volume 62, Issue 6
Homestead High School 21370 Homestead Rd, Cupertino, CA 95014
VTA strike impacts community
April 3, 2025
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anta Clara County Valley Transportation Authority workers walked out in strike due to differences in contract negotiations between the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 and the VTA starting on March 10, fare inspector Mark Nevill said. However, the VTA refused to meet the union’s demands, leaving many students and community members across Santa Clara county without a means of transportation, Nevill said. The differences in contract negotiations primarily stemmed from issues regarding the union’s arbitration process, Nevill said. The union is fighting for their right to have any grievances against the VTA resolved through a third-party arbitrator, but the VTA refused to meet this demand, he added. “[Another] reason we’re striking is our pay because the VTA is offering very little in raises,” Nevill said. “With the price of living being so high, a lot of us are living in our cars. We’ve got families to take care of, so we need a little more pay to survive in this county.” Following the start of the strike, many students voiced concerns about getting to and from school, requiring school and district officials to quickly come up with solutions to accommodate such issues, principal Denae Nurnberg said. Several solutions were swiftly put into place to assist students, such as keeping the library open until 5:30 p.m, as well as chartering buses and creating interim routes to get students to and from school with ease, Nurnberg said. The bus system was created to support more than 200 students from FHS and HHS. There were two routes, one that served exclusively FHS and one that served both HHS and FHS, director of human resources Greg Giglio said. “People in our district office took a look at
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Union executive board officer of operations Armando Barbosa said the strike would continue until the VTA agrees to negotiate terms of the contract with the union. “It’s difficult for workers to walk away and strike, especially since many live paycheck to paycheck. But we Illustration by Annie Guo also understand that if we gave in to the VTA’s demands, we’re going to suffer even further down the road,” Barbosa I used to take 30 minutes said. “We either stop the to walk, now it’s a little less, contract now, or we lose because I’m faster. It feels like it all.” a routine. I’m getting my physHowever, on March ical activity and I definitely 28, Santa Clara Counwake up a lot better.” ty superior court judge Daniel Nishigaya granted — Shelly Yusim (9) an injunction, ordering all strikers back to work. The ruling was made in an attempt to bring the ATU to accept the new contract, and all bus service in Santa Clara “The Fremont Union high County was reinstated on school district office put in a temMarch 28, according to porary bus solution to accommothe VTA website. date students who prominently Nurnberg said she live in North Sunnyvale to get is glad the strikes have them to school. ” come to an end, and FUHSD has planned to — Principal Denae Nurnburg end the interim bus system by March 31, when the VTA’s regular service resumed. Although the district was faced with unexpected circum“At first, it was a bunch stances during the strike, the of asking friends and famcommunity ultimately came ily for rides to school and together to develop effechome. A big problem was tive solutions that could be being late to school and implemented quickly, Giglio getting home late.” said. “The strike just showed —Gabriel Nelson (11) what our district can do when there’s an emergency situation,” Giglio said. “We’re willing to sit down and do what’s needed to help Photos by Kevin Miao everybody out.”
where most bus riders came from and then copied some of the VTA stops that would most likely pick up a bunch of different kids,” Giglio said. “We created four stops and tried to time it so we could pick up as many kids as possible to get to and from school.” Nurnberg said FUHSD worked to perfect the bus lines and schedules, which increased efficiency and decreased the financial burden of maintaining the system. These changes were necessary because some stops lacked sufficient ridership, causing the obsolete schedule to suffer from inefficiency, Nurnberg added. Senior Kieu-Vi O’Brien said she was heavily impacted by the strikes because she depends on the VTA buses as her main form of transportation. “On the Monday morning of the strike, I was struggling to figure out what to do because my parents weren’t available to take me to school,” O’Brien said. “I’m really lucky to have a lot of people I can rely on to get to HHS, but I know there’s a lot of people who don’t have those options.” Although the revised bus route was effective at helping some students, O’Brien said she still wished the system provided more stops. Many stops were far away from students’ homes, and four stops alone were not enough to serve all student riders, O’Brien said. “It’s definitely nice to see the school take action quickly, but having so few stops makes FUHSD seem out of touch with students who actually use the bus,” O’Brien said. “If the district checked in with more students, they could have changed the bus line to directly benefit more students who rely on it.” Given the difficulties students and community members experienced as a result of the strike, union members wanted to thank community members who have been negatively impacted by the strike for their understanding and support, another VTA employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “We’re sorry that we had to do this, but I believe it was for the greater good,” the source said. “We thank everybody for their patience.”
Varsity girls soccer scores CCS win Annika Abraham and Henry Hu Varsity girls soccer won the Central Coast Section Division 2 tournament for the second year in a row, coach Raquel DeJesus said. Despite the memorable victory, DeJesus said the start of the season was filled with ties and losses as the team struggled to learn how to play with each other.
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“We had somewhat of a new team this year,” DeJesus said. “We lost 11 seniors last year, [and] most were starters, so [we were] developing a new team. Preseason was when we were trying to figure out how to play with each other.” Despite the initial challenges, right winger, senior Maya Brower said the team significantly improved throughout the season. The team, seeded eighth, entered CCS Quarterfinals on Feb. 22 and beat Aptos
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High School 2-0, which was seeded first, Brower said. “People went into the game thinking that we would lose because their record was better,” Brower said. “Once we won, we were more confident that we had a chance at CCS.”
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Photo courtesy of Maya Brower
The team worked on communication and reviewed film to improve their performance, Brower said.
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