The union head who represents most Valley Transportation Authority workers asserted on Saturday that a bus driver arrested after making workplace shooting threats was “facing pressures” to receive a vaccine shot mandated by the transit agency.
The comments come after the Friday arrest by sheriff’s deputies of VTA worker Douglas Lofstrom, who was allegedly making shooting threats in front of other employees at the Chaboya Division Yard in San Jose on the 2200 block of South 10th Street. The sheriff’s department did not specify any details of the threats or if the man owned any firearms.
The threat comes a year after a disgruntled VTA employee unleashed the deadliest mass shooting in Bay Area history, killing nine of his coworkers and himself.
Loftsrom has been working for the VTA since 1999 as a bus driver, according to his Facebook profile page. He is currently being held at Santa Clara County jail on $25,000 bail, according to the facility’s booking page.
In his statement, John Courtney said he has “pleaded” in the past with the transit agency to not put “undue pressure” on its workers and threaten termination for those who are unvaccinated.
“The next person subjected to unnecessary stress from VTA management and contemplating harm may not say anything,” said Courtney, who has suggested a once-a-week testing regiment instead of mandated vaccines.
“We are no longer in a vaccination crisis; we are in a mental health crisis,” he added.
Courtney did not respond to a request for comment asking to provide evidence that the shooting threats and vaccine mandate were related. A sheriff’s department spokesperson declined to provide comment.
Courtney’s statement drew a sharp rebuke from the VTA administration.
“Violent threats are unacceptable and should not be defended under any circumstances,” VTA spokesperson Stacey Hendler Ross said in a statement on Sunday. “Also unacceptable is 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.”
“VTA is carefully implementing policies and working with our employees to make sure we have the safest conditions for employees and our passengers,” the statement read.
Unlike other Bay Area transit agencies, hundreds of VTA’s workers remained unvaccinated until the end of April when employees were required to get a shot. According to numbers provided by the transit agency, around 95% of the 1,494 workers that ATU’s represents are fully vaccinated. Those that have refused the shot have been assigned disciplinary hearings and nobody has been terminated so far, according to Hendler Ross.
In the May 2021 mass shooting, an aggrieved VTA employee shot and killed nine other coworkers at the Guadalupe rail yard. In May, the building where part of the shooting occurred was razed.
The VTA was the last major transit agency in the Bay Area to implement a vaccine mandate. BART and Muni both resorted to firing or forcing the retirement of a small fraction of their staff, after enforcing mandates in the fall. However, other agencies, including Caltrain and Los Angeles Metro — the largest transit operator in the state — have allowed testing options for unvaccinated workers to stave off firings.
Source: www.mercurynews.com