Collier transit contract expires, 151 jobs to be cut

A Texas company is laying off 151 employees in Naples after losing a contract with Collier Area Transit, Collier County's public transportation system.

The company, Dallas-based MV Transportation, alerted city and state officials of the move in a letter last week sent to meet federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requirements.

In it, the company says its contract with Collier Area Transit ends Sept. 30 and the employees will be laid off on that day or 14 days prior.

(The letter, posted in the state’s WARN database, says the contract is with the Capital Area Transit System, but a representative with MV says in an email that is a mistake and “new notices were provided last week with the correction referencing Collier Area Transit.”)

The jobs being cut are at the Collier Area Transit facility at 8300 Radio Road and are made up of mostly drivers, with 112 listed as being slated to lose their jobs.

Collier Area Transit did not respond to questions Tuesday about whether a new company was taking over the contract and if it would retain some or all of the employees.

And a representative with the Transport Workers Union of America did not respond to an email asking about the possibility of employees staying and what the affected workers were entitled to. (Of the 151 employees being laid off, 128 are union members, according to the letter.)

In addition to the drivers, the jobs cut include seven dispatchers, four customer service reps, two road managers and one scheduler.