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Since May 6, 2025, Santa Barbara MTD has been engaged in good faith bargaining with Teamsters Local 186 (Teamsters), which represents MTD’s bus operators, operations supervisors, and maintenance employees. Formal mediation with a state-appointed mediator began today, Friday, June 27, 2025.
While an impasse has not been declared, the Teamsters have strike authorization authority from their members. The current contract expires at midnight on Monday, June 30th, 2025 and MTD has offered a contract extension to avoid disruption while negotiations continue. While no extension has yet been agreed to, MTD is hopeful that continued mediation of the dispute with a state-appointed mediator will be successful.