Category: Bus

Wisconsin decision will embolden extremists

June 15, 2011 MADISON, Wis. – A divided state supreme court here June 14 ruled in a 4-3 decision that the state’s controversial law revoking collective-bargaining rights for public employees may go into effect – overturning an injunction issued by a lower court. This is important to UTU me [...]

Tags collective bargaining defense fund, Ohio, political extremists, UTU PAC, Wisconsin

Have you experienced unruly passengers?

June 15, 2011 The UTU, Amtrak and other labor organizations have designed a survey to aid in the development of training and awareness programs to assist Amtrak employees deal with unruly, disorderly or aggressive passengers. While development of this program is intended for Amtrak, all UT [...]

Tags Amtrak, passengers, survey, unruly

Bus safety crackdown meets House opposition

June 14, 2011 WASHINGTON – Increased authority for random safety inspections of tour buses and money for more safety inspectors received a lukewarm reception by the Republican leadership of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee June 14 following the request by Federal Mot [...]

Tags bus, bus safety, FMCSA

Bus rep victory is UTU’s 23rd in 41 months

June 13, 2011 PERRIS, Calif. – Bus drivers and mechanics of Southland Transit here have voted “UTU, yes” by an almost four-to-one margin. This is the 23rd organizing victory – air, bus and rail — for the UTU since January 2008, an average of almost one new property organized every se [...]

Tags England, GO 20, Hubbell, Local 1496, Local 23, Miller, Montesino, Morr, organizing, Southland Transit

Preserving Medicare: We have a role to play

June 9, 2011 Would you accept a job paying $1 million to count out $2 billion in $1 bills? Think again, because working a 40-hour week and counting out $1 per second, you would require 266 years to count out the $2 billion total. Now that you have an idea how much $2 billion is, consider [...]

Tags fraud, Medicare, Medicare Summary Notices, Palmetto, railroad medicare

Fight for our futures against labor’s enemies

June 7, 2011 UTU members are stepping up to the plate in the fight to preserve collective bargaining rights, Amtrak, workplace safety, Railroad Retirement, Social Security and Medicare by mounting a counter attack on political extremists intent on destroying organized labor and all it has [...]

Tags Amtrak, anti-union, collective bargaining defense fund, Hynes, Lenfest, Local 113, union busting, UTU PAC

Charlotte bus drivers vote ‘yes’ for UTU

June 6, 2011 CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The 546 bus operators employed by Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) have voted by more than a 2-1 margin to return to the United Transportation Union. Calvin Studivant, alternate vice president of the UTU Bus Department, will now assist those bus op [...]

Tags bus, CATS, charlotte, contract, Local 1596, organizing, vote, vote yes

Transport-employee fatigue continues to kill

June 2, 2011 While sleep scientists have established that going to work fatigued is like going to work drunk, there remains a disconnect among those who manage transportation firms. And people are needlessly dying and being seriously injured as a result. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHoo [...]

Tags designated legal counsel, fatigue, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, FMCSA, LaHood, National Transportation Safety Board, OSHA, whistleblower

Union-busting efforts face glare of sunlight

May 31, 2011 Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis coined the term, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” Indeed, sunlight cast by labor-union members on the dark-of-night action by political extremists in the Wisconsin legislature is having a meaningful impact in Wiscons [...]

Tags anti-union, collective bargaining, collective bargaining defense fund, recalls, rights, union busting, Wisconsin

At 97, former UTU president still leads fight

May 24, 2011 Former UTU International President Al Chesser (1972-1979) is now 97 years old, and the fire in his belly in support of organized labor has never dimmed. The following was written by Chesser in response to creation by President Mike Futhey of the Collective Bargaining Defense [...]

Tags anti-union, chesser, collective bargaining, collective bargaining defense fund, extremists, rights, union busting