Sounds plausible.......
“Washington was afraid we’d go with the Teamsters.”
An opinion of why Local 282, the Rochester division of the nationwide Amalgamated Transit Union (“What’s ‘ATU?’”) had been “trusteed.”
For 16&1/2 years I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service in Rochester, NY; where Local 282 was my bus-union. I belonged to Local 282.
“Trusteed” means our union has been taken over by ATU headquarters in Washington, DC, and our local union officials thrown out.
As a retiree, I’m not involved in day-to-day operations of our union versus my old employer.
In fact, while still employed, it seemed possible to work independent of our union — that -a) the union got us a good pay rate and benefits, and -b) it interceded for naughties, which I wasn’t.
I wasn’t working out of a union hall.
I’d report to the Company each morning, then go my way.
Once-in-a-while I got called on-the-carpet, but never felt compelled to involve the union.
My sins were minor, more management being a nuisance — exercising its cajones.
I was one of their most valued employees, primarily because I followed the three basic rules of bus-driving: -1) show up; -2) don’t hit anything, and -3) keepyour hands outta the farebox.
“Ya know Bob, I think you’re right,” a manager once told me.
But I didn’t feel the Union was a waste.
My pay and benefits were what they were because of that Union.
But Local 282 wasn’t much of a union; most members were always badmouthing it.
There wasn’t much support; just the mechanics. The mechanics were on-the-Property all day; bus-drivers were far afield driving bus.
I started a voluntary union newsletter, the infamous “282-News.”
As such I got to see how intransigent management was; fatcats collecting bloated salaries.
They refused to accept that we union-members were instrumental to their fat incomes. If anything went wrong, it was always the union’s fault.
I guess things have gotten worse since I retired.
I retired in late 1993; a disability retirement caused by my stroke.
Transit is on its third head-honcho since I retired, and he’s reportedly even more intransigent and obfuscatory then when I was there.
The current head-honcho is a media-heavy, obsessed with cultivating favorable public relations.
Transit keeps operating seemingly independent of his ministrations, providing pretty much the same service as when I was there.
Service which says the bus can take ya downtown, but forget the south.
Interviewing for a single job down there, without a car, is an all-day endeavor.
Service out there is rudimentary; there are no established bus-corridors in place.
And like-it-not, all buses to the south hit MarketPlace Mall, since that’s where the fares are. —Except Park-and-Rides, carting suburban stiffs to-and-from work in downtown Rochester.
We also got to cart the halt, the maim, those that cannot otherwise drive cars.
E.g. those with their driver’s-license suspended due to a driving-while-intoxicated conviction.
Such a person felt all society was arrayed against them, so challenged the bus-driver.
If things got outta hand, we’d radio for help, but Transit was no help.
If we called in the cops, a Transit Supervisor also showed up and told everyone it was our fault.
He’d try to placate everyone so you could keep driving the miscreant.
They were not about to throw off a threat to your safety.
At first the trusteeship was supposedly because our union didn’t comply with the ATU constitution.
We had two full-time paid union officers. We were only supposed to have one.
(A bylaw change rectified that.)
Two full-time union officers were costly. There was concern our union’s finances were becoming insolvent.
Beyond that, we had not been able to hammer out a renewed contract with our Company for over three years.
The implication was our union officials were incompetent and lazy, but in my humble opinion, this is as much the Company as the Union.
The Company was stonewalling, hoping the union-membership would eventually get antsy.
They did, calling ATU headquarters in Washington DC to complain.
Beyond that, a HUGE stack of grievances was piling up; over 350+. All would have to be arbitrated.
Arbitration is to present the facts of a dispute before an impartial arbitrator agreed to by both parties — he/she settles the dispute.
Arbitrations were being scheduled out to 2016.
Every arbitration costs about $6,000; lawyers, etc.
Multiply that by 350 and you have a fortune. —The Company was bankrupting our Union.
Washington’s solution was to pretty much give the Company what it wanted. Throw out most of the arbitrations, and settle a contract pretty much on the Company’s terms.
Nothing new; I still have a pack of grievances in my desk-drawer from 1993. Nothing ever came of them.
Our union’s Executive-Board was not included in contract negotiations; in fact, it didn’t even get to consider interest-arbitration.
Interest-arbitration is to consider a fact-finder’s report which would be presented in front of an impartial arbitrator agreed to by both parties.
As public-employees in New York state, we couldn’t strike.
The arbitrator would then dictate a contract.
But the membership was antsy. They decided to call Washington headquarters, who took over and gave the Company what it wanted.
By so doing, our membership shot themselves in the foot.
Our two local union officials are somewhat to blame, for not being able to get the Company to treat with the Union.
The union-president retired and seems to have disappeared.
The Business-Agent goes back to driving bus, after over 20 years.
Top of the seniority list.
To my mind they were both horrible bus-drivers; more union than inspired to get the job done.
My passengers loved me; I was running on time no matter what.
It was a reflection of my having once been a bus-passenger myself.
I certainly changed off plenty of unsafe buses, but I remember driving one with no rear brakes. All it had was front brakes which skidded on the ice. What rear brakes I had were the flyoff parking-brake handle.
Okay, trusteeship over, a new Local 282 president gets installed.
I doubt it makes any difference — except the Company got what it wanted.
Union-members are always badmouthing union officials.
282 is always reprehensible.
The Company is taking advantage of that.
Justification for trusteeing our union is now “malfeasance and malpractice” of our local union officials.
I don’t think those guys were that bad. Perhaps more inclined to mouth off instead of pursue things. But that’s how bus-drivers are.
The glut of arbitrations is as much the Company as the Union — more so.
The guy from Washington, International Vice-President Gary Rauen (“ROW-in;” as in “wow”) gave an example of what he felt was a silly arbitration; an arbitration where a bus-driver was fired for using his cellphone while driving bus.
“Cellphone use while driving is illegal in this state,” Rauen bellowed.
Well excuse me, but as I recall the reason we voted to arbitrate was not cellphone use. It was the Company not following agreed-to disciplinary policy.
Following is an OCR scan of a blurb about our union that appeared in the ATU’s nationwide house-organ “In-Transit.” I guess it’s a report to an ATU convention. I include it because it reminds me of Politburo drivel in Russia:
“REPORT ON LOCAL 282 FINANCES
International Vice President Rauen advised the Board that he and International Representative Gary Johnson Sr., had recently provided a full report on the worsening financial condition of Local 282 (Rochester, NY) which was well received by the rank-and-file (rank-and-vile?) membership.
A set of recommended bylaw amendments are slated to restructure the local union’s governance by assigning all business agent duties to the president, making the financial secretary post a part-time position, cutting the number of executive board members, reducing total officer compensation, and otherwise cutting routine expenses.
It was further reported that a plan has been developed to address a considerable backlog of grievance cases pending arbitration through improved labor management relations and to otherwise resolve long-outstanding issues in collective bargaining.”
Of interest to me is that the next ATU convention takes place at DisneyWorld in Orlando, FL; the Land of Make-Believe.
• “What’s ‘ah-two?’” is something my mother asked seeing my ATU (Amalgamated Transit Union) button.
• I had a stroke October 26, 1993.
• “MarketPlace Mall” is a very large shopping-mall south of Rochester, probably the largest in the area.
• A “change-off” was replacement of a defective bus with a good one.
• “International” because ATU represents in both the U.S. and Canada.
• “OCR scan” is an optical-character-recognition scan; a scan whereby the computer recognizes the letters in a scan, and creates a text-file.
An opinion of why Local 282, the Rochester division of the nationwide Amalgamated Transit Union (“What’s ‘ATU?’”) had been “trusteed.”
For 16&1/2 years I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service in Rochester, NY; where Local 282 was my bus-union. I belonged to Local 282.
“Trusteed” means our union has been taken over by ATU headquarters in Washington, DC, and our local union officials thrown out.
As a retiree, I’m not involved in day-to-day operations of our union versus my old employer.
In fact, while still employed, it seemed possible to work independent of our union — that -a) the union got us a good pay rate and benefits, and -b) it interceded for naughties, which I wasn’t.
I wasn’t working out of a union hall.
I’d report to the Company each morning, then go my way.
Once-in-a-while I got called on-the-carpet, but never felt compelled to involve the union.
My sins were minor, more management being a nuisance — exercising its cajones.
I was one of their most valued employees, primarily because I followed the three basic rules of bus-driving: -1) show up; -2) don’t hit anything, and -3) keepyour hands outta the farebox.
“Ya know Bob, I think you’re right,” a manager once told me.
But I didn’t feel the Union was a waste.
My pay and benefits were what they were because of that Union.
But Local 282 wasn’t much of a union; most members were always badmouthing it.
There wasn’t much support; just the mechanics. The mechanics were on-the-Property all day; bus-drivers were far afield driving bus.
I started a voluntary union newsletter, the infamous “282-News.”
As such I got to see how intransigent management was; fatcats collecting bloated salaries.
They refused to accept that we union-members were instrumental to their fat incomes. If anything went wrong, it was always the union’s fault.
I guess things have gotten worse since I retired.
I retired in late 1993; a disability retirement caused by my stroke.
Transit is on its third head-honcho since I retired, and he’s reportedly even more intransigent and obfuscatory then when I was there.
The current head-honcho is a media-heavy, obsessed with cultivating favorable public relations.
Transit keeps operating seemingly independent of his ministrations, providing pretty much the same service as when I was there.
Service which says the bus can take ya downtown, but forget the south.
Interviewing for a single job down there, without a car, is an all-day endeavor.
Service out there is rudimentary; there are no established bus-corridors in place.
And like-it-not, all buses to the south hit MarketPlace Mall, since that’s where the fares are. —Except Park-and-Rides, carting suburban stiffs to-and-from work in downtown Rochester.
We also got to cart the halt, the maim, those that cannot otherwise drive cars.
E.g. those with their driver’s-license suspended due to a driving-while-intoxicated conviction.
Such a person felt all society was arrayed against them, so challenged the bus-driver.
If things got outta hand, we’d radio for help, but Transit was no help.
If we called in the cops, a Transit Supervisor also showed up and told everyone it was our fault.
He’d try to placate everyone so you could keep driving the miscreant.
They were not about to throw off a threat to your safety.
At first the trusteeship was supposedly because our union didn’t comply with the ATU constitution.
We had two full-time paid union officers. We were only supposed to have one.
(A bylaw change rectified that.)
Two full-time union officers were costly. There was concern our union’s finances were becoming insolvent.
Beyond that, we had not been able to hammer out a renewed contract with our Company for over three years.
The implication was our union officials were incompetent and lazy, but in my humble opinion, this is as much the Company as the Union.
The Company was stonewalling, hoping the union-membership would eventually get antsy.
They did, calling ATU headquarters in Washington DC to complain.
Beyond that, a HUGE stack of grievances was piling up; over 350+. All would have to be arbitrated.
Arbitration is to present the facts of a dispute before an impartial arbitrator agreed to by both parties — he/she settles the dispute.
Arbitrations were being scheduled out to 2016.
Every arbitration costs about $6,000; lawyers, etc.
Multiply that by 350 and you have a fortune. —The Company was bankrupting our Union.
Washington’s solution was to pretty much give the Company what it wanted. Throw out most of the arbitrations, and settle a contract pretty much on the Company’s terms.
Nothing new; I still have a pack of grievances in my desk-drawer from 1993. Nothing ever came of them.
Our union’s Executive-Board was not included in contract negotiations; in fact, it didn’t even get to consider interest-arbitration.
Interest-arbitration is to consider a fact-finder’s report which would be presented in front of an impartial arbitrator agreed to by both parties.
As public-employees in New York state, we couldn’t strike.
The arbitrator would then dictate a contract.
But the membership was antsy. They decided to call Washington headquarters, who took over and gave the Company what it wanted.
By so doing, our membership shot themselves in the foot.
Our two local union officials are somewhat to blame, for not being able to get the Company to treat with the Union.
The union-president retired and seems to have disappeared.
The Business-Agent goes back to driving bus, after over 20 years.
Top of the seniority list.
To my mind they were both horrible bus-drivers; more union than inspired to get the job done.
My passengers loved me; I was running on time no matter what.
It was a reflection of my having once been a bus-passenger myself.
I certainly changed off plenty of unsafe buses, but I remember driving one with no rear brakes. All it had was front brakes which skidded on the ice. What rear brakes I had were the flyoff parking-brake handle.
Okay, trusteeship over, a new Local 282 president gets installed.
I doubt it makes any difference — except the Company got what it wanted.
Union-members are always badmouthing union officials.
282 is always reprehensible.
The Company is taking advantage of that.
Justification for trusteeing our union is now “malfeasance and malpractice” of our local union officials.
I don’t think those guys were that bad. Perhaps more inclined to mouth off instead of pursue things. But that’s how bus-drivers are.
The glut of arbitrations is as much the Company as the Union — more so.
The guy from Washington, International Vice-President Gary Rauen (“ROW-in;” as in “wow”) gave an example of what he felt was a silly arbitration; an arbitration where a bus-driver was fired for using his cellphone while driving bus.
“Cellphone use while driving is illegal in this state,” Rauen bellowed.
Well excuse me, but as I recall the reason we voted to arbitrate was not cellphone use. It was the Company not following agreed-to disciplinary policy.
Following is an OCR scan of a blurb about our union that appeared in the ATU’s nationwide house-organ “In-Transit.” I guess it’s a report to an ATU convention. I include it because it reminds me of Politburo drivel in Russia:
“REPORT ON LOCAL 282 FINANCES
International Vice President Rauen advised the Board that he and International Representative Gary Johnson Sr., had recently provided a full report on the worsening financial condition of Local 282 (Rochester, NY) which was well received by the rank-and-file (rank-and-vile?) membership.
A set of recommended bylaw amendments are slated to restructure the local union’s governance by assigning all business agent duties to the president, making the financial secretary post a part-time position, cutting the number of executive board members, reducing total officer compensation, and otherwise cutting routine expenses.
It was further reported that a plan has been developed to address a considerable backlog of grievance cases pending arbitration through improved labor management relations and to otherwise resolve long-outstanding issues in collective bargaining.”
Of interest to me is that the next ATU convention takes place at DisneyWorld in Orlando, FL; the Land of Make-Believe.
• “What’s ‘ah-two?’” is something my mother asked seeing my ATU (Amalgamated Transit Union) button.
• I had a stroke October 26, 1993.
• “MarketPlace Mall” is a very large shopping-mall south of Rochester, probably the largest in the area.
• A “change-off” was replacement of a defective bus with a good one.
• “International” because ATU represents in both the U.S. and Canada.
• “OCR scan” is an optical-character-recognition scan; a scan whereby the computer recognizes the letters in a scan, and creates a text-file.
Labels: ATU Local 282
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