DEC / NOV 2 0 1 3 www.atu.org ATU BULKS UP OUT OF THE STANDS AND ON TO THE ICE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION | AFL-CIO/CLC INTERNATIONAL OFFICERS LAWRENCE J. HANLEY International President NEWSBRIEFS JAVIER M. PEREZ, JR. International Executive Vice President OSCAR OWENS International Secretary-Treasurer ATU Canada joins fight to stop anti labour changes to budget bill - INTERNATIONAL VICE PRESIDENTS Canadian members are joining with fellow LARRY R. KINNEAR unions, telling their MPs that Bill C-4 is a serious Ashburn, ON – [email protected] attack on working families and an “assault on the RICHARD M. MURPHY constitutional right to collective bargaining.” The Newburyport, MA – [email protected] bill proposes detrimental changes to unions like how BOB M. HYKAWAY employees can make grievances and how collective Calgary, AB – [email protected] bargaining will be negotiated. WILLIAM G. McLEAN Reno, NV – [email protected] JANIS M. BORCHARDT Madison, WI – [email protected] PAUL BOWEN Regina workers reach tentative deal - Canton, MI – [email protected] After nine months of negotiations, Local 588 KENNETH R. KIRK and the city of Regina, SK, have reached a Lancaster, TX – [email protected] tentative agreement that will allow workers to return GARY RAUEN to work. Local 588 had voted to authorize a strike and Clayton, NC – [email protected] engaged in job actions, but after a mediator stepped in MARCELLUS BARNES they were able to reach a strong and fair deal. Flossmore, IL – [email protected] RAY RIVERA Lilburn, GA – [email protected] YVETTE SALAZAR Thornton, CO – [email protected] GARY JOHNSON, SR. Cleveland, OH – [email protected] ROBIN WEST Green bonds to help expand Ontario Halifax, NS – [email protected] transit - In an effort to raise funds to expand JOHN COSTA Ontario’s public transit, green bonds will be Kenilworth, NJ – [email protected] issued in the province. “Green bonds are a great tool to CHUCK WATSON raise capital for a project with specific environmental Syracuse, NY – [email protected] benefits,” says Premier Kathleen Wynne. This is one CLAUDIA HUDSON of many measures that will be implemented to raise Oakland, CA – [email protected] millions and expand transit in the heavily congested BRUCE HAMILTON Toronto and Hamilton area. These bonds will also save New York, NY – [email protected] the money in the long term because there many investors MICHELE SOMMERS who want to invest in specific green initiatives. Brooklyn Park, MN – [email protected] INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES ANTHONY WITHINGTON Sebastopol, CA – [email protected] INTERNATIONAL OFFICERS EMERITUS DENNIS ANTONELLIS International President Jim La Sala, ret. Spokane, WA – [email protected] International President Warren George, ret. STEPHAN MACDOUGALL International Executive Vice President Ellis Franklin, ret. Boston, MA – [email protected] International Executive Vice President Mike Siano, ret. ANTHONY GARLAND Washington, DC – [email protected] Subscription: USA and Canada, $5 a year. Single copy: 50 cents. All others: $10 a year. Published bimonthly by the Amalgamated Transit Union, Editor: Shawn Perry, Designer: Paul A. Fitzgerald.Editorial Office: 5025 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Washington, DC CANADIAN DIRECTOR 20016-4139. Tel: 1-202-537-1645. Please send all requests for address changes to the ATU Registry Dept.ISSN: 0019-3291. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40033361.RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO:APC Postal Logistics, IN TRANSIT | 3 MICHAEL MAHAR LLC, PO Box 503, RPO, West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill ON L4B 4R6. November/December 2013 Rexdale, ON - [email protected] LARRY HANLEY, INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT We Want YOU For Team ATU! elcome to the ATU Hockey Issue. We’re using this you are an ATU member and want to be more involved Wpopular national preoccupation to make a couple in your Union the first step is to see your union officers of important points. and stewards and tell them you want ATU training in 2014. Also email us directly at [email protected]. • First the number of people, including our members, who pay strict attention to sports far We are working right now with your local union officers exceeds the number who pay attention to politics to plan and produce the biggest training program in and legislation. our history. Are you ready to help ATU become less of a spectator and more of a player on the ice? Don’t gripe • The average American can name more football – sign up today. players than members of congress. • Ruthless billionaires are taking full advantage of our lack of interest in following congress— Assaults must stop pushing though devastating tax cuts for the rich, As I write this I have just heard about more assaults on engaging in unnecessary global conflicts, and bus drivers around the U.S. and Canada. In Canada we changing laws to hurt the middle class. are trying to pass federal legislation to protect transit • We can act to change this. workers from assaults, and in the U.S. we are meeting over the next several weeks with federal agency heads to • Members of parliament are pushing through press the need for more attention by transit managers anti-union legislation to take away the rights of and lawmakers to this growing epidemic. I am a bus workers across Canada. driver and I have been assaulted while driving. I have • We need to pay more attention to the teams that attended the funerals of my brothers who were killed in are really hurting us and our children by cutting assaults while driving. education, but expanding military programs. I know how it feels and I know that we must do everything we can to be sure our members return home The ATU continues to prepare for a very action-packed after their day’s work. As labor singer Anne Feeney sings: 2014. The U.S. transportation funding bill will be up for “We just come to work here, we don’t come to die.” The renewal. This is our opportunity to get federal funds for joint indignities of being beaten up at work and not transit. Also in 2014 there will be mid-term congressional having sanitary bathroom breaks continue to be high on elections. In Canada, legislators are attempting to pass the ATU agenda. Bill C-4, which would have negative impacts on our collective bargaining rights and there are key municipal But if you are tired of workers and our families being elections to be held in a number of provinces. slapped around like pucks in the game of life then we are going to have to make it a point to focus at least as much on our jobs as we do on our entertainment. Join us Key to the fights ahead is mobilizing our members. We need to get ATU out of the stands and on to the ice. If IN TRANSIT | November/December 2013 3 JAVIER PEREZ, JR., INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT BART: Incompetence or contempt? s I write this, Local 1555 members working for labor relations games to test our members’ willingness ASan Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) to stand together. are having a very unusual problem. After months of contentious negotiations, the local reached a deal, Sure, within our locals there are disagreements, but which both parties signed and the members ratified. there is a time, place, and procedure to effectively resolve But a problem arose when the contract went to BART’s differences. But, there should be no misunderstanding Board for approval. or differences among us when confronted by the type of behavior exhibited by BART management. Together The agency contends that a provision that gives their we can, and together we will prevail if we, the members, workers six weeks family medical leave in addition stand strong together, set our differences aside, and to their vacation time, which BART says it rejected, support each other and our local leadership. was “inadvertently” left in the signed agreement. The previous contract said that they must use all of their Whose problem is it? It’s a problem for all of us – we vacation before taking family leave. can’t sit around “waiting on the world to change”. Get involved! Most commentators don’t believe that BART, with a $400,000 negotiator, and high-powered lawyers actually made that error. Nevertheless, the board rejected the Imagine the possible, seize contract with the new provision. And that’s where the opportunity. things stand, as I write today. Throughout this issue you’ll read how we plan to do that in the coming year. We will come together in What if the local made the solidarity, like never before, and build a better life for same claim? ourselves, and generations of workers yet to come. Imagine what would happen if Local 1555 said there “The clock of life is wound but once for us, and no man was something in the contract that they thought had has the power to tell just when the hands will stop, at a been taken out. Would BART say, “Certainly – no late or early hour. Now is the only time you own. Live, problem – we’ll just delete that part.”? I don’t think so. love, toil with a will. Place no faith in time. For the clock may soon be still.” BART’s actions lead us to only one of two conclusions. Either BART management is incredibly incompetent, Christmas and the holiday season is my favorite time or they will do anything they think could bust the of year. Remember the awe struck face of a child, the union – no matter how underhanded. If it’s the later – gleam of wonder and magic the eyes behold? Reach out and I’m sure it is – it’s clear that they have nothing but help someone in need.