#transit workers

Regina transit workers have voted in favour of a strike mandate in response to the city’s budget plan, union leaders announced Tuesday. Sukwinder Gainda, president of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Canada Local 588, said 83 per cent of members voted in favour of sending a message to city officials. The city’s proposed budget will impact transit workers, the union said, including ending service at 10:30 p.m. rather than midnight, as well as potential cuts to some routes.

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Terminal workers strike for first contract: 1970

A Trailways terminal employee pickets the facility at 12th and New York Avenue NW November 11, 1970 after the union called a strike to obtain a first contract.

The terminal employees, including ticket agents, clerks and baggage handlers were organized five months previously into Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1112.

The main issue in the strike was over a union security clause that would have required all workers in the unit to join the unit or pay an agency fee. The union had signed-up 86 of the 92 workers.

Operations were not significantly affected as supervisors filled in and drivers were under a separate contract with a no-strike clause.

The strike lasted until November 14th when workers gave up on the issue of obtaining a union shop.

The Washington Star quoted a union representative as saying the settlement was a “reasonably good economic package” and added that the workers dropped their union shop demand after “threatening” letters were sent to strikers.”

By Bayani

Though there’s no end to the pandemic in sight, including new mutations being confirmed at the University of Maryland College Park campus, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan ordered public-sector workers back to work.

Of course, most public-sector workers, essential or non-essential, did not have the luxury of working from home. Many public-sector workers in Maryland — teachers, custodians, sanitation workers, government employees, to name some — have been in the line of fire since the very first COVID-19 shutdowns.

Quoted from City Lab (4/13/2020):

Even under normal conditions, city bus drivers have one of the highest rates of injuries and illnesses of all occupations, between vehicle crashes, belligerent passengers, and the grind of physical labor. Now coronavirus tops that litany of risks. Among U.S. workers, bus drivers rank in the 78th percentile for being in close physical proximity to others, which means they are highly exposed to infectious disease, a New York Times analysis found.

A tragic illustration of the problem came in a recent headline about a Detroit bus driver who died from coronavirus just days after complaining about a passenger coughing on him. “Obviously, we’re being overexposed here,” John Costa, the president of ATU International, said in a video posted to Facebook on Friday.

Workers at Metro Vancouver's HandyDART transit service are set to go on strike Sept. 3, according to their union. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724 said the work stoppage will begin at 5 a.m. PT after the majority of its membership rejected an offer earlier this week by Transdev, the contracted operator of HandyDART — a door-to-door shared transit service for people with permanent or temporary disabilities. The union said it represents about 600 HandyDART workers, including drivers, dispatchers, mechanics and schedulers who work in the Greater Vancouver area. Transdev and the union have been negotiating since last November. Key issues include staffing shortages, high worker turnover and higher wages, said Local 1724 president Joe McCann. 

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Haitians hold popular uprising against new budget

By G. Dunkel

While hurricanes Harvey and Maria didn’t strike Haiti, Hurricane Irma gave the country a glancing blow mainly in the northwest, the poorest section of Haiti. It displaced more than 100,000 people and destroyed crops, roads and infrastructure. The rest of the country was spared but lost a major food source.

Nevertheless, a social and economic hurricane is hitting the country now, fueled by avarice and greed, and will continue to hit Haiti for the foreseeable future. It is the new tax code, embodied in the budget that went into effect Oct. 1.

Under this code, drivers who want to renew their licenses will have to pay $158 for an income tax report. All Haitians — even those living abroad — who want to use governmental services, such as getting a professional license, a passport, a diploma or school transcript, vaccines and so on, will annually have to pay 10,000 gourdes ($159 at the current exchange rate).

Roanoke, VA: Informational picket to build solidarity with transit workers at Radar Para Transit, September 26, 2017.

Workers at Radar are trying to organize with the Amalgamated Transit Union.