BUS workers left their jobs at 4 a.m. Monday to picket failed contract negotiations between their union, Teamsters Local 43, and the bus management company, Professional Transit Management.

The strike ended before the day was done. Gary Becker, Mayor of Racine, met with union officials and the management company for over 4 hours on Monday afternoon, and the two sides were able to reach an agreement.

Now it’s up to the union members to approve the new contract, said the union. The members will vote on the contract at 8 p.m. on Sunday. BUS workers have been working without a contract since July 1st.

If the new contract is approved, BUS workers will receive a 1.75% annual pay increase for this year and next, and their retirement health costs will be covered under private insurance instead of the BUS workers’ group plan. This supposedly will save the city $250,000/year.

If the union does not approve the new contract, the management company, union and mayor will meet again.

The one-day city bus drivers’ strike wasn’t the headache Racine Unified School District Transportation Director Pat Starken needs as he gears up for another school year.

The strike, which was called off late Monday, would have affected more than city bus riders. It would have affected Unified students when they start school two weeks from today.

Union officials for the striking city bus drivers said the strike could have lasted longer than two weeks. It lasted less than a full day before both sides reached an agreement that put the drivers back on the buses.

If it had lasted as long as predicted, the strike would have affected at least 13,000 students this year.

Unified officials were sending notices home Monday to the thousands of students who are expected to ride city buses to school this year, the same day that drivers for the Belle Urban System started walking the picket line.

Starken said he was kept aware of the possibility that city bus drivers might have gone on strike.

“We’ve been able to set up contingency plans all along,” Starken said. “We’re prepared. We knew that this was a potential issue.”

School buses would have run the established city bus routes to pick up stranded students if the strike had continued through the beginning of the school year, Starken said.

The district’s contract with Durham School Services requires the company to have standby drivers, one for every 10 buses.

Starken expects to have 110 school buses hit the road this year, in addition to the city buses that some students are expected to ride. That would have required 11 standby drivers.

It would have cost Unified $135 per day for each of the six school buses — $810 — that would have been needed to replace the idle city buses had the strike continued.

“The biggest issue I would have is ‘Can I handle those six additional buses and does Durham have them?’ ” Starken said.

The suspect in the case is a 38-year-old local woman and police said the incident may have started because of name calling and the spreading of rumors. Police may request charges of substantial battery once the suspect is located.

Police said a partial license plate was given to police. Damage to the 2003 Pontiac is estimated at $700.

According to police, Joe L. Hayes, 53, 2124 Virginia St., Racine, tried to leave the store without paying for two cases of beer. A crack pipe was found during his arrest, reports indicate.

Hayes has been charged with retail theft, possession of drug paraphernalia, misdemeanor and felony bail jumping and disorderly conduct.

According to the victim, a group of 10 to 15 16- to 20-year-olds approached him and asked for a cigarette. The group then started assaulting the man. A passerby scared off the attackers, reports indicate.

Police reports indicate that Brandon J. Hand, 23, 1244 Villa St., was driving a 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass northbound on Marquette when he veered across the southbound lane hit a curb and crashed into the pole.

Hand allegedly told police he did not recall what happened prior to the crash. He was cited for speeding.

The Cutlass incurred “very severe” damage, according to reports.

According to witness accounts, the woman was punched just before 3:15 p.m. in the face by an unknown male who left the scene by vehicle eastbound on 12th Street.

The woman later told police she did not know the attacker. She was taken by Racine paramedics to Wheaton Franciscan-All Saints, 3801 Spring St., where reports indicate she was treated for a possible broken nose, a laceration on the bridge of the nose and a possible concussion.

“I don’t get to work today,” Pierce said.

But the bus strike affected far more than the drivers.

She’s not the only one. On the first day of the city bus strike, there were plenty of people in Racine who either didn’t work or had trouble getting to work Monday.

Benito Bernal, 43, is a dishwasher at SC Johnson in Sturtevant and was scheduled to start work at 6:30 a.m. But just before 6 a.m. he was at the transit center, and there were no buses in sight. “It ain’t right,” Bernal said. “I didn’t know about it. They didn’t tell me.”

He doesn’t have a car and his family members with vehicles already left for their own jobs, he said. All that he can do is call his work and try to explain to them what happened, he said.

Sharon Stuckey, 37, also wasn’t certain how she was going to get to work Monday morning. She was supposed to load the bus at 5: 29 a.m. to meet a co-worker at Regency Mall to car pool to her job at a Burlington nursing home. But at 5:40 a.m. she was wondering down the street, uncertain if she would make it to work and frustrated that the bus dispatchers weren’t answering the phones.

“It rings and goes to busy, and rings and goes to busy,” Stuckey said.

Along with the buses not showing up, neither did the smaller Dial a Ride Transportation (D.A.R.T) buses, which provide transportation for people with disabilities.

Many people depend on those buses to go to their dialysis appointments, said Curtis Garner, executive director of Professional Transit Management of Racine.

Four patients missed their dialysis appointment Monday morning because of the bus strike, said Keith Uyeda, a clinical manager at Wheaton Franciscan All Saints Dialysis East on Sixth Street.

“It can be a life threatening situation,” Uyeda said.

The management company is lining up alternative transportation for people with disabilities who need to use the bus for medical concerns, Garner said. But the management company does not have plans to hire replacement drivers at this point, he said.

“I don’t think I should go out and break the union right now,” Garner said.

The bus strike wasn’t life threatening for all riders, but it was frustrating for those who stood waiting for buses that never showed up.

“What?!” said John Norvillas, when he found out the bus wasn’t coming. “Oh no.”

Norvillas, a painter, lives on Douglas Avenue and was supposed to be at a job site at 7 a.m. to clean. Standing near the corner of Douglas Avenue and Rapids Drive, he estimated he was about three miles away from his job site on West Boulevard. He is going to have to walk there, he said.

The idea of walking annoyed him, but he was particularly annoyed that no one told him about the strike ahead of time.

“I think they should notify the people that ride the buses,” Norvillas said. “Or the bus company should get scab drivers.”