“8:39........

.......that has to be a record,” said 282 Recording-Secretary John Blocchi (“BLOCK-eee”)
“282” is the Rochester division (“Local 282”) of the nationwide Amalgamated Transit Union, my old bus union at Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY, where I drove transit-bus for 16&1/2 years until my stroke.
Local 282 holds three regular monthly business meetings the third Thursday of each month: 10 a.m., 3 p.m., and 8 p.m.
The 3 p.m. meeting was essentially my doing.
Attending the 8 p.m. meeting was virtually impossible for an early pull-out like me. And at 10 a.m. I was working.
The 8 p.m. meeting might last until 10 p.m.; then 45-50 minutes to drive home; so in bed at 11 p.m.
Get right back up at 3 a.m., so I could pull out a bus at 5 a.m.
So I circulated a petition. Early pull-outs were being circumstantially blocked from attending meetings.
The petition passed, and the International office in Washington D.C. liked the idea, so 3 p.m. meetings began.
I guess they still have them, although my stroke ended my bus-driving career way back in 1993.
The meeting started on time at 8 p.m. with the Pledge-of-Allegiance to the flag, and a moment of standing silence for recently deceased members, both of whom I didn’t know, since they were mechanics.
Only four attended; one of the four being me. Eight if you include the union officials.
At least 17 or more attended the morning meeting, and 10 or more the afternoon meeting. So we had a quorum.
Union support is always a joke. Our union has almost 650 members. The ones that are bus-drivers are all ornery — you couldn’t succeed if ya weren’t.
The mechanics are ornery too; as a result of being managed by jerks.
The bus-drivers, being pretty much on-their-own all day, aren’t very connected to the Union.
And we don’t have a “Hall.” (What we have are Union offices in a building down the street from Transit — that building also has a large meeting-room inside; where we hold our meetings.)
What we have is “the Drivers’ Room,” which is on Transit property, and overseen by management.
As a concession to the Union, it has a tiny bulletin-board off in a dark alcove.
Union officers visit occasionally, but the bus-drivers have to hit it daily. Rumors fly and can’t be squelched.
Union officials are fairly available if called, but there’s a likelihood you’ll get an answering-machine.
It’s an arrangement that works against the Union: “the Drivers’ Room.”
Of the four on hand, three were Transit (one being me; retired), and one was LiftLine.
“LiftLine” is the area’s “Dial-a-Bus” service. Its Operations-Center is at another location separate from Transit, but it’s affiliated, since both LiftLine and Transit are run by the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority.
So LiftLine is also 282.
So is a private bus operator in adjacent Ontario County (where we live). —Ontario County doesn’t belong to the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (“RGRTA”).
About 10 or so proposed LiftLine arbitrations were rattled off for vote by the single LiftLine attendee.
Only four arbitrations for Transit.
Next was the report by 282’s Business-Agent: Frank Falzone (“fowl-ZONE”).
“Blah-blah-blah” then “I wanna squelch a rumor that Joe and I were against back-pay in a proposed contract.” (“Joe” is Joe Carey [‘carry’], president of Local 282.)
—282 has been without a contract with Transit since late 2006. By law, we operate under the old contract.
“This is bunk!” Frank said. “We never would accept no back pay. Ahem; ‘Read-my-Lips!’”
That completed: “Any new business?” Joe asked.
“Any old business?
With nothing presented, I’ll entertain a motion to adjourn.”
Boom-zoom.
“Gotta go pull a bus out,” a Transit attendee said. He walked outside and down Main St. toward the Barns.

I had a stroke October 26, 1993.

The so-called “Genesee Region” is all the counties in the area of western N.Y. that the Genesee River flows through. (The Genesee River flows north from Pennsylvania into Lake Ontario, also through Rochester.) —The only county in the Genesee Region that wouldn’t join the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (“RGRTA”) is Ontario County (where we live). RGRTA also operates other small bus-services in other counties that surround the county Rochester is in (Monroe County); but its main function was to make the private bus-operator (who was losing money) in Rochester public.

In the final year of my employ at Regional Transit (i.e. before my stroke), I did a voluntary union newsletter called the “282 News.” It was great fun, since it would prompt weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth among Transit managers. Finally the union viewpoint was getting out to local politicians and media, instead of just the usual Transit self-congratulation. This included egregious safety issues, that before had been swept under the rug. It also included stories like what appears in this blog, so was interesting. —It was done with Microsoft Word®, was a lotta work, and ended with my stroke.

An “arbitration” is to bring a dispute before an impartial arbitrator, agreed to by both management and the Union, to decide the case.

“The Barns” are the location of Transit’s operations — also large sheds the buses can be kept inside.