JTRAN employees will return to work Monday under a new tentative agreement with MV Transportation, putting an end to the monthlong strike between the two parties.
Employees will see an immediate 5% increase in their base pay under the new contract and an additional 3% increase over the next two years. Under the old contract, starting pay was $17.18 an hour with senior workers receiving $23 an hour.
The proposal was ratified Thursday by a 29–9 vote and addresses the union’s demands for better pay and benefits.
“We’re just glad that it’s over,” Local 1208 union president Charles Tornes Jr. said. “It’s hot out there in Jackson, Mississippi, weather.”
The final agreement is set to be voted on next week.
A spokesperson for MV Transportation was not immediately available.
The new agreement also addresses union concerns with MV Transportation’s previous proposal to the city. The plan sought to cut two bus routes, eliminate Saturday service and allow MV to hire drivers without commercial licenses for microtransit services, a ride-hailing system.
A JATRAN bus sits at Union Station in Jackson on Wednesday, June 17, 2026. Credit: Aaron Lampley/Mississippi TodayJTRAN routes 70 and 20 — which provide service to the Ellis and Woodrow Wilson neighborhoods — will continue in addition to Saturday service. MV is limited to hiring five drivers without a commercial license but the limit rises to seven if JTRAN falls beneath 40 active workers.
Additional provisions add Martin Luther King Jr. day to the holiday calendar and creates an accident review board within the company. The board will include one representative from the Amalgamated Transit Union and MV Transportation.
While the agreement serves as a win for both sides, compromises were made. The union did not gain lunch breaks. Provisions for workplace incidents will remain the same — meaning employees will go unpaid if placed on administrative leave.
Tornes said some of the issues not agreed upon are still a work in progress.
Though publicly funded, JTRAN employees have worked for private Texas-based company MV Transportation since 2024 under a $9 million contract with the city. The contract is set to expire Dec. 31, 2027.
Tornes told Misissippi Today that he doesn’t see a path forward with MV and predicts that another company will take over once bids reopen.
“Companies come and go. But at the end of the day, we’ve been chartered since 1939 at JTRAN ATU. We’re gonna be there”
The two parties had been negotiating a new agreement since December after their previous contract expired. Tensions boiled over in late May after union members learned that Mayor Horn’s administration was planning to present MV’s proposal to the city council — something members previously said would undermine their negotiations.
JTRAN employees would vote to strike two weeks later.
The company’s contingency plan, which was sought by the city, saw outside workers flown into Jackson in order to continue bus services.
In a paratransit meeting on July 15, MV senior vice president Leland Paterson said 11 of 12 fixed routes were on the road and that they were 50% on time the first day workers went on strike. Mississippi Today reached out to MV Transportation for updated statistics but MV did not respond prior to publication.
This is not the first time a strike has happened under the city’s contract with MV Transportation. JTRAN workers previously went on strike in September 2024—halting all bus services in the city for 14 days. The strike ended after seven mediated sessions.
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