Video showcasing how the ATU has been involved in the fight against labor, driver assault and transit funding.

I totally empathize with concern and frustration with the impending layoffs and what a difficult and stressful time it is. This is indeed a painful time for all our membership and our union.

It's not by my choice that our office imposes the subject assessment charge. It's one of my unfortunate duties as the Financial Officer of our Union that I set up that payroll deduction. The charge is in accordance with our International Constitution. Those rules can't be overlooked or overruled simply by a petition or an impromptu vote of our members.

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First Transit Everett Contract Ratified

At a time when it’s been the most difficult for Unions to negotiate a wage increase and better benefits for their members, let alone maintain what they currently have, ATU Local 1576 was successful in negotiating the best contract our Everett First Transit members ever imagined they would see.

After nearly 10 months of negotiations, our First Transit members ratified our tentative agreement by a margin I never thought I’d see. With a vote of 97 in favor 8 opposed, the membership told the negotiating team that they never thought they would see such a good contract. Here are some highlights:

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Per our by-laws, I regrettably have to announce that you’ll see an assessment being deducted from your paychecks, starting the second pay periods this month. This office must charge everyone who was a member on December 31st an equal amount. This year has been a very expensive year for these legal fees and organizing efforts. Besides successfully bringing back many terminated employees, some of the other legal fees include issues involving the First Transit Handbook, Senior Services coach operator hours, First Transit, Lakewood, not negotiating in good faith, and at Community Transit - holiday pay, sick leave calls, on time reporting, contract article 18.2, Labor/Management meeting pay, failing to arbitrate (ULP) and reimbursed wages for Union officers. As a result, the total assessment is $70.12 per member. Read more >>>

As the New Year begins, our community and our company face change and uncertainty. The loss of revenue, which has created the service cuts and layoffs at Community Transit, has also hit the rest of the community hard. As I drive Swift up and down highway 99 I see huge empty buildings that once housed grocery stores and car dealerships, and I also see smaller businesses empty and closed. I read in the paper about our Everett paper mill going out of business and hear of family members who are being laid off from jobs they have been with for nearly 20 years. Next month many good employees are being laid off at CT.

I want to keep in mind the difficulties we all are facing as I talk about the work we are going to be doing this next shakeup. Yes, we are thankful to have work.

But the work we bid is going to be difficult work. Some of us are going to be doing long pieces of overtime work with nonexistent turnaround times, spending hours and hours in the seat each day without any scheduled opportunity for meal breaks or rest. Others are going to be working split shifts, some with 5 hours in between the first and second half of their daily work, AND split days off. This work comes with a guarantee of fatigue and stress, and this is our reality.

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One of the frustrations of the Union officers is member to member disputes. The whole idea of the Union is to bring people together in solidarity. Member to member conflicts do the opposite, they tear the Union apart rather than help to make the Union stronger. I have written about this before and I will probably write about this again. The ATU International has slogans that address solidarity like, "ONE ATU", and "United We Bargain, Divided We Beg."

I have spent a lot of my time trying to defuse member to member disputes. I have even had management contact me and ask me to intervene and attempt to resolve disputes between members. Sometimes an employee gets so angry at another employee that management or HR gets involved. The next thing that could happen is that one or both of the employees will get disciplined, leading up to and including termination. Although the Union officers would prefer to shy away from these disputes, I have found it better to meet them head on and try to get some resolution. I would rather have a member contact the Union and give us an opportunity to talk to both parties than have a member go to management.
 

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