Bus Riders Union of Austin, Texas | El Sindicato de Pasajeros

As most of us know, Capital Metro REALLY DOES = STRATRAN, but the following is reposted here for all to see how StraTran came to be:

Union employees

Many of Austin's transit workers already were unionized when the City of Austin acquired its bus system, originally a private company, in 1973. The city contracted with American Transit Corporation, a private for-profit corporation based in St. Louis, Missouri, to manage its unionized employees. In July 1985, when Capital Metro was formed, Austin transferred its contract with American Transit to Capital Metro. When that contract expired, Capital Metro entered into another contract for the same services with Management Labor Services.

In 1991, however, to comply fully with a state law prohibiting public entities from supervising unionized employees with collective bargaining rights, the Capital Metro board determined that its unionized employees and their supervisors should be transferred to a separate nonprofit company. In January 1992, Capital Metro created StarTran, Inc., a private entity that acts as the authority's agent in managing its unionized workforce.