ATU Local 587 Supporting the 1%

According to a recent Report the ATU has fought hard for concessions in the last round of contract negotiations in order to bail out Metro Transit in Seattle, which is facing a huge budget deficit and has had to resort to the foolproof strategy of "Austerity Economics" to save the transit system. Here are some of the salient details.

Metro Transit, one of the main public transport systems available in Seattle and its suburbs, has announced far-reaching cuts to service announcing plans to eliminate one third of the routes and reduce services on another third, if a projected funding shortfall of $75 million is not met. Metro depends on sales taxes for 60 percent of its operating income, and obtains the rest from fares paid by passengers. From 2008 through 2015, a drop in sales tax revenue has projected a revenue shortfall of $1.2 billion. $750 million of this gap has already been closed by service cuts, increasing fares by 80 percent over four years, using property taxes, coupled with lowering wages and benefits of metro employees.

Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond referred briefly to the support given by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) in these efforts in pushing through a concessions contract on transit workers. In November 2010, the ATU agreed to a three-year contract in which transit workers received no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the first year, effectively freezing their wages. In the next two years, drivers were given below-inflation raises of 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent respectively. Whereas the previous contract had secured a 3 percent floor on the COLA based on local inflation, the 2010 contract has a 0.0 percent floor, which means the wages cannot be decreased, but may not increase either.

The contract also allowed part-time operators to do more overtime work than their full-time counterparts, for which they would be paid less. ATU Local 587 President Paul Batchel was quoted as conceding that the agreement means “fewer employees working longer hours” with “fewer benefits packages being purchased.” There was a reduction of 100 staff positions following this concessions contract.

The attack on public transit is part and parcel of the ongoing destruction of public institutions that provide basic services to working people, in the process shifting untold billions of dollars into the pockets of the rich.

The city’s claim that “there is no money to be found” to fund transit and other vital social services rings hollow when the state of Washington is home to eight billionaires on the Forbes 400 list. This includes Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Steve Ballmer and Paul Allen. The combined wealth of these four individuals alone is a staggering $120 billion.

According to a report by Citizens for Tax Justice & the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Boeing, the airline manufacturing giant based in Washington state, having made $9.7 billion in profits over the 2008-2010 period, actually got a tax refund of $178 million from the IRS over the same period. Another report by Citizens for Tax Justice concludes that Boeing avoided $6 billion in taxes in 2008-2011.

Makes one wonder at what point a union crosses that line that simply makes it another management tool to force workers to accept less.

When a Union Doesn't Pull It's Weight

Here is a story coming out of the State of Michigan, recently the nation's 24th Right to Work State, involving a group of school bus drivers unhappy with their union representation. Contrary to what some news articles have claimed this is not about an anti-union group using the new legislation to break up their union. There is much more going on here and the leadership of the official trade union movement should take the time to have a closer look at what these union members are saying. Their story may hold the key for Labour's fight against the imposition of Right to Work legislation by legislators in the US and Canada.

These 36 employees worked as bus drivers and monitors for the Dexeter Community Schools Transportation Department and were represented by Local 324 of the International Union of Operating Engineers. The conflict between Dexter's bus drivers and monitors had been brewing for several some time and began when Local 324 absorbed another labor group three years ago. The former labor group, whose personnel, practices and bylaws were superseded by those of the Bloomfield Hills union, had a more democratic way of working with those that they represented in the Dexter area. the conflict grew to a head when a contract was negotiated two years ago and then the contract was never brought to the membership for a ratification vote.

Fearing a repeat during negotiations this year, a group of reformers within the union pushed for an election to replace former chief union steward Mary Sullivan and alternate union steward Mike Johnson. A petition to hold a new election was signed and presented to the international rep of local 324, who allowed the election. It resulted in the election of a new chief steward and alternate union steward from the ranks of the reformers. Not agreeing with the election results the International rep toghether with the union president informed the membership that their election was illegal and against our by-laws. According to the by-laws, stated the International, the business manager retains the right to appoint whomever he wants, and in this case and in light of the election results he was not going to give up that right.

Using the right to appoint the Chief steward under the by-laws the International went ahead and reappointed the old Chief Steward and Alternate Steward against the wishes of the majority of the Dexter drivers and monitors. IN response to this action by the International Dexter's 36 drivers and monitors filed a petition to decertify Local 324 and recertify as their own collective bargaining unit. According to a report in the Dexter Leader the employees had their vote and West Washtenaw Bus Drivers and Monitors Association was the result. Now those employees are trying to get their local bargaining union up and running in time to negotiate a new contract that is at least influenced by initial dialogue between the new bargaining unit and its membership, presented to the members for review and feedback as its hammered out during negotiations with district officials, and presented in a final or near-final draft form to the members before both sides agree to the new contract.

The new union secretary and treasurer Michael Dendy said that "With Local 324 we had an expectation that we would be able to voice our opinion." He added that the employees in Dexter looked at other existing unions to join in the region, but one potential replacement for Local 324 was in the midst of a corruption scandal, so he and his colleagues decided to go down the road of forming a local union. "All we wanted was for them to do their job," he said. "When 324 left they left nothing else on the table but a new union."

He clarified for The Dexter Leader that this situation isn't about making any statements about unionization in general or the right-to-work debate that continues to rage throughout Michigan: "This is not about getting rid of 'the' union -- this is about the union we had was not pulling their weight ... one of the (new) stewards is a retired GM employee, the other is retired police, (and) both are lifelong union members," Dendy said. West Washtenaw Bus Drivers and Monitors Association will pay $15 or $16 in dues each month, as opposed to $25 to $40 to Local 324, according to Dendy.