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.

Transit Workers Face Worst Conditions Since Great Depression

These are the worst conditions for mass transit since the Depression reports Chris Hedges in a recent article in TruthDig.

The wreckage of the nation’s public transportation system is staggering. Greyhound, before government deregulation in the 1980s, had 20,000 unionized members. It now has 2,500. The company, before deregulation, along with Trailways ran a national bus network that provided public transportation to towns and remote corners of the country. But once the bus industry was deregulated, companies such as Greyhound and Trailways were no longer required to serve remote or poor areas. Pensions and wages, especially as new non unionized bus companies arose, were reduced. Greyhound bus drivers, once the highest paid in the country—in the 1970s their yearly pay was more than $100,000 adjusted for inflation—now make between $40,000 and $50,000 annually. And the company has eliminated perhaps as much as 80 percent of its former nationwide service.

Many bus drivers no longer work full time. And a loophole in federal law exempts intercity bus drivers from Fair Labor Standards Act overtime provisions. There were some 3,000 bus companies in the country four decades ago. Today there are 152,000. Most of these companies have only a few buses. Public transportation is increasingly part of the underground economy. Working conditions are punishing and often unsafe.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, 36 percent of motorcoach crash fatalities over the past decade have been due to driver fatigue. It is the No. 1 cause of fatal accidents, far above road conditions, which account for only 2 percent, or inattention, 6 percent. Legislators, federal agencies and carriers, however, refuse to address the problem of driver fatigue.

The deterioration of the nation’s public transportation, like the deterioration of health care, education, social services, public utilities, bridges and roads, is part of the relentless seizing and harvesting of public resources and programs by corporations. These corporations are steadily stripping the American infrastructure. Public-sector unions are being broken. Wages and benefits are being slashed. Workers are forced to put in longer hours in unsafe workplaces, often jeopardizing public safety. The communities that need public services most are losing them, and where public service is continued it is reduced or substandard and costlier.

This process of destroying our public transportation system is largely complete. Our bus and rail system, compared to Europe’s or Japan’s, is a joke. But an even more insidious process has begun. Multinational corporations, many of them foreign, are slowly consolidating transportation systems into a few private hands. Of the top three multinationals that control transport in the U.S. only one, MV Transportation, is based here. FirstGroup, a multibillion-dollar corporation headquartered in the United Kingdom and a product of Margaret Thatcher’s privatization of British mass transit, now owns First Student, which operates 54,000 school buses in 38 states and nine Canadian provinces and has 6 million student riders. FirstGroup also has a controlling stake in Greyhound. Veolia Transportation, a subsidiary of Transdev, a conglomerate headquartered in France, has 150 contracts to run mass transit systems in the United States. It was Veolia, after Hurricane Katrina, that took over the New Orleans bus system. And Veolia did what it has done elsewhere. It stripped bus workers of their pensions.

New York’s Nassau County bus service, once part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), was turned over to Veolia after the French corporation hired former three-term Sen. Al D’Amato of New York as its lobbyist. Veolia—which when it takes over a U.S. property, as in New Orleans or Nassau County, refuses to give workers a defined-benefit plan—is partly owned by a pension fund that covers one-third of French citizens. U.S. workers are losing their benefit plans to a company created to provide benefit plans for the French. Veolia is currently lobbying Rhode Island and Atlanta to privatize their bus services.

The battles in towns and cities across the country usually pit 100 or 200 beleaguered union workers in a local bus system against a powerful multinational and its lobbyists. For 50 years we have been trained to negotiate, trained to litigate, trained to arbitrate, trained to legislate, all the things society requires of a good, well-trained, well-groomed union,” says the leader of one of the largest transit unions in North America. “And then all of a sudden they said, guess what, we are going to pull the plug. You are no longer even going to have the right to negotiate. We are going to take away your bargaining rights. What good is it to have 500 well-trained officers in my union who know how to arbitrate a grievance when you haven’t got a contract and you have no grievance procedure?”

The Man in Black on Taking Back Our Unions

Members of Local 501 of the Operating Engineers have been having a long struggle with the leadership of their union. The Man in Black has been a key figure in organizing the resistance movement and mobilizing the membership to reclaim their union. Here is his latest email to the members of Local 501. I think it has relevance to all of us working to reclaim our local unions and ensure that the will of the membership prevails.

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

Now, for the bad news! I'm moving in to your house! But its okay. I heard if I move into your house I can spend your money without your knowledge. I heard if I move into your house, I can do what ever i want, and you won't say anything. I heard that most of the time you're too busy to do anything at your house, so I'll have complete run of the place. I heard that basically I can do whatever I want, and YOU DON'T CARE! Awesome! So send me your keys!

Sounds pretty stupid huh? Well, unfortunately, its true. You just don't care! What am I talking about? Well, somewhere along the line you forgot that your Union IS your house! We pay the rent, we pay the salaries, we pay the gas, the electric, the cable, the phone, and yet most of you are too busy to take an active interest in whats going on!

Now, let me ask you this: If this was literally the house you lived in, would you allow that? I know most of you will say, "Hey Johnny, thats DIFFERENT!" But really, its not.

If you're receiving this e-mail, you are a Union Member. And being a Union Member means more than paying your dues and expecting something for it. You have a DUTY. You wouldn't let your home get run by someone who wouldn't follow your rules would you? When your teenage kid started barking orders at you, you sure as hell wouldn't take it, would you? You wouldn't be "too busy" to show up and put a stop to it, would you?

Well why did we allow this to happen in our Union Halls? When did the organization we built become staffed with elite people who we became afraid of, afraid of being blackballed, afraid of being threatened, afraid of speaking our mind? In my own Union Hall, the infamous Local 501, we have four District Meetings every month. This coming Tuesday is the District 1 meeting (in case any of the 501 folks "forgot"). Fewer and fewer members take the time out of their schedule to attend these meetings, and the consequences are dire. We've lost our houses.

So here is the FIRST thing you can do to start the long process of taking back your house: SHOW UP!

Oh, there's plenty of news to share, but I thought after rebuilding all these lists I'd start with a simple e-mail...just to get the ball rolling!

I'll be back in a day or two with more, but for now, welcome to the Resistance.

I'll see you soon,

The Man in Black (Johnny)

US Greyhound Drivers Ratify New Contract

According to the president of ATU Local 1700, Bruce Hamilton, a new contract has been ratified between Greyhound USA and the union representing over 4,500 drivers and mechanics in the United States. The Local 1700 web site reports that 71% voted in favour of the new deal and 29% voted no.

In the words of the president of the local this is an "historic deal" because over the course of the contract more time on the job will become paid time, and by the final 5th year of the contract, regular and extra-board drivers will be paid from sign-on to sign-off – in what is claimed to be a first in the history of Greyhound Lines.

The term of the contract is from April 1, 2013 to April 1, 2017. Over that period of time operators will see their top driving rate increase from $24.00/hr to $25.00/hr (4.17%) and their non-driving rate from $5.00/hr to $9.50/hr (90%) - see pp. 45 - 46 of Tentative Agreement for details. Time at work that is now unpaid (sign-on, sign-off, stops over 30 minutes, layover time) will be phased in until all is paid by the final year of the contract. The company also agreed to an increase its contributions to the Health and Welfare Trust, from the current $622 to $840.23 per participant over the life of the contract representing an increase of 35%.

Other significant changes are that the agreement establishes a new $125 per day minimum pay for regular runs, the minimum extra-board assignment is increased to $80, the deadhead rate goes up to 100% of the driving rate in the last year of the contract, the meal allowance goes up to $30 per day, and Extra- board drivers are guaranteed their earned days off.

Another contentious issue was resolved as the agreement requires that all Greyhound work in the Southwest that had been subcontracted to Americanos and Crucero will be returned to Local 1700 drivers, and that all 1700 members will work those runs at full rates – not at discounts the company originally proposed. It is notable that this agreement was negotiated and settled in advance of its' scheduled expiry date at the end of March 2013, because members in Texas sparked a rebellion over the company’s unfair use of Americanos drivers on Greyhound Express runs. Management agreed to settle the issue after weeks of picketing and a huge demonstration at corporate headquarters in Dallas. The company responded by asking Local 1700 to negotiate a “global settlement” covering all Greyhound work.

There appear to be a lot of positive changes made in this new contract, and the fact that it was finalized and placed before the membership for a vote a month before it was due to expire is a good sign. A lot of these gains make up for the concessions that were made during the strikes in the 80's and 90's. With this contract the members of Local 1700 are still for the most part trying to make up lost ground. It should be noted that the impetus and motivating force behind these contract negotiations were an activist and mobilized membership base in Texas that opposed Greyhound's attempt to use Americanos drivers on greyhound runs in the Southwest.

How Two Tier Anything is Poison to Unions

When your company bosses and your union bosses start telling you how great and wonderful a "two tier" anything can be brothers and sisters you should know that someone is pissing on your leg and telling you it's only rain. This Two Tier stuff is part of the whole Austerity program that workers are being asked to buy into these days.

From the employer's side the argument always goes something like this - there's only so much money in the pot, and the pot itself is not very big, so that it is not a matter of how much the union can negotiate for its members, but rather a question of how this rather limited pot of money will be distributed among the workers. So first, they go for outright concessions and threaten layoffs if they don't get the cost savings they want. And once they have milked that for all it's worth they go for some form of "Two Tier" solution where new hires are subjected to some form of employment discrimination like longer probationary periods at reduced wages, provisional or part time status at lower wage rates and little or no benefits with the possibility of full time status years down the road, or membership in a 401(k) pension plan instead of membership in the defined benefit pension plan.

From the union side the argument is that jobs have been saved, or new jobs are being created, and that means someone who didn't have a job and was living on food stamps now has the chance to pull themselves up by their own boot straps and become a dues paying union member, although at the lower wage rate with less benefits and they're still going to be living on food stamps. It's all Motherhood, Apple Pie and the American Dream.

It has always been the strategy of the powerful to destabilize the solidarity of the masses by playing favorites, and this has often been achieved by inseminating and utilizing prejudices associated with race, religion, country of origin, citizenship and even sex. But today, if employers wish to take advantage of this sort of discrimination, they have to make some cosmetic changes to the language, and most importantly they have to pick on a new kind of minority, one that hasn't been fighting back over the last century, and preferably one that is not yet well organized or represented.

So let's think real hard and figure out the ideal vulnerable candidate, a minority without a voice. Bingo! - That's it! - Future employees! Don't buy into this nonsense brothers and sisters, don't start selling your future brothers and sisters down the river.

Equal pay for equal work, an injury to one is an injury to all. Read more about this Two Tier B.S. at this web site. No More Tiers

ATU Agrees to Contract Concessions For Fresno Drivers

Local 1027 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, representing 220 Fresno bus drivers, backed down in a fight with Mayor Ashley Swearengin over contract negotiations. The contract for about 220 FAX drivers expired in June 2011. Months of negotiations stalled with the city demanding concessions -- pay cuts, reform of overtime rules, more help with health-care premiums. The union wanted the status quo, saying its members had gone more than four years without a raise according to a report in the  Fresno Bee.

Rick Steitz, president of Local 1027 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, had initially worked out a deal with the City that included a 3% salary cut and overtime rules that were somewhat favorable to the Union. This didn't go over well with the Drivers and around 100 of them showed up at a labor hall in December and voted down the proposal by a 2-to-1 margin. One driver of 23 years said that he'd "rather stand up and fight them than get on my knees and have them beat me up." At the same time the drivers sanctioned the ATU to call a strike. The Mayor's response was to impose a 3% salary cut and tougher overtime rules.

Steitz claims that after the Mayor's imposition of new contract rules several driver's came forward and told him they were sorry they voted down the initial proposal. So instead of mobilizing the membership and opting for strike action, he went back to the Mayor's office and asked that the driver's be given a second chance to vote on the December proposal. On Thursday the drivers voted by a nearly 2-to-1 margin to accept the same one-year deal they had defiantly shot down in mid-December.

There were good reasons for Local 1027 leadership to pursue strike action or other job actions rather than rolling over as they did to the implacable position taken by the City in contract negotiations. By state law a mediator/fact finder had to be called in to investigate the dispute and make recommendations. It is significant that in the their Report the independent fact finder did not support pay cuts to the workers saying that “These employees have gone four years without a wage increase in this unit, where other employees in this same unit have gotten wage increases." Another issue that the City raised in negotiations was what they perceived as a high rate of absenteeism which was driving up overtime costs. The real reason however had more to do with work related injuries arising from poor or out dated equipment and repetitive strain injuries. On any given day according to the union there would be between 13 to 23 employees off on work injury.

Like everywhere else the City of Fresno is taking part in the frenzy of Austerity politics and looking to download costs on workers. One of the ways this is being done in Fresno is to turn transit operations into an enterprise department so that it is entirely a fee based service. As a result the enterprise fund has been losing about $1.2 million a year because the gasoline tax, state, federal grants that provide the additional funding for operations were all dropping due to the economy. The funding problem was further exacerbated because the City has been reluctant to raise transit fares. The last fare increase came in 2011 and prior to that there had been no increases in fares for the prior 10 years. Further restrictions to properly fund transit operations are due to a municipal cash flow problem brought about not only by a shortage of revenue, but by the past administration’s decision to float revenue bonds to help pay for a baseball stadium, parking garage and other city projects. City officials say those bonds just about doubled the general fund debt service.

In order to deal with the revenue shortfall the city says it has to bring its expenses in line with its revenues. The plan includes $2.5 million in franchise fees from the privatization of garbage collection and waste disposal services, and getting compensation reductions from all city employees across the board.

Combine all the above with a weak union leadership that seems to treat the membership as a rubber stamp for decisions made by the executive board and the rank and file gets sold out. That there are problems with the leadership of ATU Local 1027 became evident recently when the former secretary-treasurer was arrested in December of 2012 on charges of embezzling union funds and submitting false financial reports according to the Fresno Bee. From April 2006 to April 2009, Adam C. Raimer, 42, of Madera allegedly used his position as the union's secretary-treasurer to make unauthorized purchases for his own use from Office Depot, including big screen TVs, cameras, and a GPS navigator, according to an indictment that was handed down in August. He also allegedly used a union account to pay his personal cell phone bill and PG&E utility bill. The loss to ATU Local 1027 is alleged to be more than $41,000. Union president Rick Steitz has declined to comment on the arrest and to date the International has taken no action.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/12/20/3108831/former-fresno-transit-union-official.html#storylink=mirelated#storylink=cpy

Except in the most extraordinary circumstances, there is no acceptable reason for a union to bargain concessions. The results of concession bargaining over the last two decades should stand as proof that concessions do not benefit workers, and the results here with the Frenso bus drivers is further proof of this. Where union leaders have bought in to management's campaign as they did in Fresno, "message discipline" from the union office will help to persuade the membership until it eventually capitulates and accepts the employer's terms. The gloom and doom is always positioned as if it were fact although for the most part, it is highly speculative, grossly oversimplified and designed to spread fear, uncertainty and a sense that cuts are inevitable and workers should be happy to have jobs on any terms. It's important not to fall prey to the psychological manipulation of "message discipline" or get caught up in distracting talk about unprofitable operations. The admission by Local 1027 president Rick Steitz,  that the proposed contract "is the best answer for the situation at this time" is a clear indication that the membership of 1027 didn't have a chance going into this round of contract negotiations.

What happened to the city bus drivers in Fresno should be a lesson for rank and file members in all unions. Don't leave the task of negotiations to your leadership alone. It is vitally important for rank and file members to set up a communications system so that they can keep one another informed about what is going on in contract negotiations. This is even more important where the union leadership operates as secret society that excludes the membership from participating in the negotiating process. The first step is to get organized and set up a contact list. This can be as simple as collecting e-mail addresses or setting up a Facebook group.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/01/24/3146961/fax-bus-drivers-change-minds-approve.html#storylink=cpy

Once you have a list of contacts and a way of getting the message out here are some further suggestions from the people at Uncharted:

If you're hearing noises about concessions:

(i) Find out what's going on: Be sure to attend any meetings management is holding with workers to talk about the business, and any meetings that your union is having, to discuss negotiations.

(ii) Ask your union leaders if management is going to be seeking concessions and what the union's position on this will be.

(iii) Make it clear that you are opposed to concessions. Get that message across every time the subject comes up.

(iii) Educate your fellow members about what's really up when it comes to concessions. By presenting a united front to management (and union leaders who may have bought-in) you can minimize the possibility that your hard-won gains will be bartered away because management isn't doing its job.

(iv) Remind anyone trying to persuade you to accept rollbacks of the following three simple points:
(a) the real financial position of the business as presented in their own documents;
(b) that it is management's job to make the business profitable;
(c) that wage concessions have never helped workers and you have no reason to believe that they will benefit you.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/01/24/3146961/fax-bus-drivers-change-minds-approve.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/01/24/3146961/fax-bus-drivers-change-minds-approve.html#storylink=cpy