USC shuttle drivers reached a tentative agreement with the University in a bargaining session May 9. The agreement gives the drivers their first contract roughly 14 months after unionizing.

“We are pleased that we were able to reach a tentative contract agreement with our shuttle drivers and avert a strike after a negotiation session on Thursday night,” USC Transportation wrote in a statement to the Daily Trojan on May 10. “The four-year contract provides a higher minimum wage, a ratification bonus and a split-shift differential.” 

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This deal was reached just hours before a planned unfair labor practices strike on the morning of May 10, which was set to overlap with individual school commencement ceremonies taking place across campus.  

According to a job posting from Feb. 25 on USC’s career website, shuttle drivers earn $20 per hour. 

Shuttle drivers unionized under Service Employees International Union Local 721 in March 2023 with a vote of 16-15. They held a protest Feb. 29, demanding higher wages and good faith negotiations with the University. 

Shuttle drivers — who operate the USC-marked buses and drive students, faculty and staff around the University Park Campus and the Health Sciences Campus over 7 miles away — are celebrating this milestone victory.

“Our landmark contract — which drivers overwhelmingly ratified this week — delivers across the board wage increases, from the newest to the most senior drivers,” SEIU Local 721 wrote in a statement to the Daily Trojan. “In addition, we agreed to language that covers employee travel time to break rooms on the routes that are far from them, and just cause for discipline.”

SEIU Local 721 and USC did not immediately respond to the Daily Trojan‘s requests to provide specific details about the tentative agreement reached.