About 20 protestors gathered at the light rail’s Central Station on Thursday, encouraging people to boycott Metro Light Rail because four light rail operators will be laid off Friday.

The four light rail operators received pink slips on Sept. 28 notifying them they were being laid off. One operator, Tyler Hartford, said the drivers being laid off were originally employees of Veolia Phoenix, a waste transportation company. When they were offered new positions, they were told working for Metro wouldn’t be any different, he said.

“I personally chose to leave [Veolia Phoenix] because I think this is the transportation of the future and I wanted to be part of it,” Hartford said. “But I know that if any of us had known nine months down the line that we would have been laid off, we would have chosen job security.”

Bob Bean, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1433, which represents the operators, said he felt Alternative Concepts Inc., the company Valley Metro contracted to handle the light rail, should lay off supervisors instead of operators.

Alternative Concepts Inc. has 27 supervisors and 52 operators. In comparison, Veolia Phoenix has 24 supervisors and 700 operators, he said.

“ACI just doesn’t want to fire supervisors because they brought so many in from out of town,” Bean said.

ACI general manager Ron McKay received a letter on Sept. 24 from his chief transportation officer that said four operator positions needed to be eliminated, Metro Light Rail spokeswoman Hillary Foose said.

McKay was unavailable for comment at the time of publication and phone calls to other ACI employees were not returned.

Foose said it was unfortunate that Metro had to revise its staffing plan.

“We’ve only been in operation for about nine months and we have a better idea now of what we need to run the light rail,” Foose said. “We have to create cost efficiencies.”

Bean said he is working on getting the four operators their jobs back at Veolia Phoenix, but their 90-day drop-back period has passed.

“They will have to start as new drivers, instead of the five years plus seniority they had under their belts,” he said.

If he is able to get a job at Veolia Phoenix, Hartford will make about $12 an hour instead of almost $24 an hour at Metro Light Rail, he said.

Reach the reporter at sheydt@asu.edu.