The Union

 

 

The Reactions of Our Union

By Dan Francis, ATU 19 President

 

    Union’s by nature are generally reactionary.  They are formed as a reaction to low wages and benefits, or unsafe working conditions, or perhaps a lousy boss.  They become alive when there is something obviously unfair, or when the boss says, “I know I am violating the contract, just see if you can stop me!”  Officer’s react strongly when they are lied too, and in fact take measures like tape recording conversations to document what is said and to hold management to the truth.  It seems management’s new motto is, “it’s not what’s right, it’s not what’s wrong, it’s what I can get away with”.  In our recent arbitration we experienced a number of lies and misrepresentations of what we know to be the truth and what we were told would be testified about.  When confronted, the statement was made, “you trust too much”.  Actually, we don’t trust much at all anymore.

 

    These reactions are not just from the leadership, but in fact are driven many times by the membership.  Too many times of saying one thing and doing another has agitated and united our membership.  The layoff issue is a great example.  Because of company’s unwillingness to negotiate last year and the recent attacks on our contract by the company and our 13c by the city, the membership voted overwhelmingly to stick with the contract in spite of a pretty good side offer.  The fear was, if we keep opening up our Labor Agreement pretty soon there will be no agreement.  We have some pretty smart members. 

 

    This year is going to be a year of many important political decisions that will affect us profoundly.  On the national and state level it is the elections.  Every election the cry is sounded that this is the most important election ever.  Well, in fact this might be the most important election ever.  Organized labor, and in fact workers in general have been beat up very recently.  Wages are stagnant and we are losing benefits.  ATU 1005 has been on strike for over a month just to keep what they have.  In Colorado Denver Local 1001 has a wage freeze, Pueblo 662 has a wage freeze, and of course the City of Colorado Springs and our wages remained frozen for a year.  It sure seems with the trips to the grocery store and gas station and the cost of utilities that our same money goes less far.  This election should be about the economy.  Frankly, what each member needs to ask – Am I better off than I was four years ago?  Then Vote Accordingly!  

 

     

 

SAFETY-------SERVICE------SCHEDULE

By Greg Green

 

            As everyone is aware safety has become a topic around Springs Transit.  Safety is something we all are involved with on a daily basis.  Our jobs are dependant on our driving safely every day but I know that like me, it is not the possibility of losing a job that motivates all our drivers to drive safely.  It is the possible harm that can be caused by an eighteen-ton bus to the other people who share the road with us.

            However, we can only do the best we can with what we have to work with.  I do not understand why safety is not as important to Springs Transit as it is required to be with the drivers.  All of the people in management, I have been told, once drove buses.  How can a former driver ignore the safety hazards on the buses and not correct them when they have achieved a position of responsibility and authority that allows them to make the changes needed.  New fare boxes were purchased but the blind spot that crippled a lady twelve years ago was ignored.  It was ignored when the purchase order was written, even after the subject was brought up when management and drivers, (present and former) went to the Gillig factory before the new fare boxes were purchased.  Would it have cost so much more to purchase the shorter boxes?????  What is the price of a Life?  Harry knows the price.  Vince Miller’s family knows the price.  Is eighty thousand dollars too much???  I know what I believe.  What does Springs Transit believe?

            Ask anyone who drives a bus what is the most important piece of safety equipment on a bus after the brakes and they will tell you it is the mirrors.  We get safety messages over the radio telling us to properly adjust our mirrors to avoid blind spots.  How can you adjust an inadequate mirror to avoid blind spots?  The Gillig Company saw fit to install large split mirrors on both sides of the buses they sell.  When needed Springs Transit sees fit to install one flat mirror with a three or four inch spot mirror.  The spot mirror is somewhat less than merely adequate during the day and it is totally useless at night.  Also, it takes up needed space in the less than effective flat mirror.  Would it cost so much more to replace the broken mirrors with original equipment????  What is the price of a Life?

            We hear, on the radio and in discipline meetings, that at Springs Transit safety is first in importance, service is second, and schedule is third.  “Safety, Service, Schedule” is a nice slogan but it would be nicer if it was practiced by more than the drivers at Springs Transit.

 

 

                                                    WINFRED STRATTON

                    A MAN WITH HEART, ROOTS AND MONEY

                                                   By Dan Francis, ATU 19 President

 

    Winfred Stratton had an early and profound impact on The City of Colorado Springs, the early days of the Springs Transit streetcar system and ATU 19.  He was a carpenter by trade, who did mining during the summer in the Cripple Creek and Victor area.  As providence would have it, he struck it big during the hey day of the gold rush era towards the end of the 19^th century.  As a wealthy man and because there were very few cars he decided to build a state of the art transportation system, to help the commoners of his time get around.  He bought, expanded and maintained the early streetcar system to help the community of around 50,000 to get to work and school and various appointments.  He also built parks and a zoo and provided concerts and dances at the end of the transit lines to offer social and cultural times to his blue collar contemporaries as well as keep the street cars busy.  The strategy of building community around transit is still effectively used today.

 

Mr. Stratton, though not understood by others of wealth at that time, never forgot his tradesman roots or the difficulties of survival of that day. He had a vision and heart to use his money for the comfort and efficiency of his neighbors.  He was a card-carrying carpenter until his death.  He had the reputation of treating his employees to an above market standard of living as well as was ahead of his time in providing uniforms, coats and a covered driver’s area before others in the industry demanded it.  In return his workers gave him flexibility in the trade and in work rules.  Most of the streetcar drivers were also tradesmen in other areas..  While summer was the busiest of times for the streetcars, when the slower wintertime came the “extra” operators were employed to build new streetcars.  Many streetcar operators were also carpenters, electricians and mechanics who built and maintained the streetcars for busier times.

 

What a concept.  An owner with heart, roots and money provides an excellent system for his community, and his employees respond and reward his generosity with flexibility and hard work.  

 

 

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT

By David Fitzgerald, ATU 19 Political Director

 

            I would like to express my sincere thanks for all the support I have received from the members during my time of transition from ATU 19 Sec. /Treas. The process of getting my health back has been slow but it has returned. I have accepted the challenge of being the political director for our local. Many of you have experienced this as I have been getting postcards filled out to send to our representatives in Washington for the Transit Bill. I have been very active in our local for the past eight (8) years and do not plan to go away quietly. I have found a new zest for issues that concern all of us both in our personal and business lives. The support of the membership has done wonders for me and I would be remiss if I failed to thank you. As I cannot do this to each member personally please accept this as my thanks.

 

I will be presenting some information later this year about the up-coming elections, and what they mean to us. The political process has many sides and I do not presume to be able to give you all the information. I plan on presenting both the good and bad of the candidates and will try to give you transit and labor information to make a sound decision on who you wish to support. Remember voting is a right and privilege that we must not take lightly. Springs Transit and the Colorado Springs community is facing an important election because of the November R.T.A. ballot initiative.  I will be attempting to assist any member that is not registered to vote so we can all have our voices heard.

 

 

 

ATU Negotiation Seminar, Oakland CA

Bob Lanucha, ATU 19 Vice President

 

On March 19^th, Dan, Greg, and I attended a negotiation seminar in Oakland, Ca. We were taught how to cost out the contract as well. Our teachers were very experienced in their fields. I was very impressed by their backgrounds and their enthusiasm to teach the local unions. The other locals represented were from transit systems across the country. para-transit and school bus drivers were in attendance as well. The seminar was sponsored and paid for by the International. The International President, Warren George and Secretary Treasurer, Oscar Owens attended. We had several guest speakers over the course of the weekend as well.

 

One thing you get to experience when you go to these seminars is the passion for unions and in this case, ATU. The transit industry is so important in this country and these people live it and breathe it. It’s extremely motivational to talk to people from around the country and find out they are dealing with all of the same issues we are right here at Springs Transit. A lot of thoughts get exchanged on how to get certain things done or changed in our industry.

 

It should be no surprise to anyone who watches the news that the biggest issue facing us is the economy. Health insurance is still right up there. It is extremely vital to the transit industry that Bush get ousted during this upcoming election. I am not going to go into all the specific issues that Bush has screwed up in the past four years, that would take to long. The International is supporting John Kerry and they are making political education one of their highest priorities right now. Information on a program called COPE will be coming to you through our local leadership. You will be informed about this program and asked to participate. I feel if there was ever a time to get politically active, that time is now. I feel it is extremely dangerous to take the mindset that the big issues in the Federal government won’t trickle down to affect us. They will, I assure you it is just a matter of time.

 

Anyway, that’s enough preaching. Thanks once again for allowing us to attend the seminar. We hope to implement some strategies and techniques we learned in upcoming negotiations this fall.

 

SPRINGS TRANSIT KEEPS OPERATORS DRIVING BLIND

By Carolyn Chapman, ATU 19 Safety Steward

 

It’s been almost thirteen year since I had the misfortune of learning just how dangerous the blind spot caused by the fare box really is. The day of my tragic bus pedestrian accident, I made my safety concerns about the obstruction of the right window caused by the fare box known, to the company in my police report and accident report.

 

Others ask why this is so important to me. The reason I care about lowering the fare boxes is so no other driver has too feel the pain and helplessness I felt when I had a pedestrian accident. There is no way to describe what happens to a driver when they realize that they have just seriously injured someone else. OH GOD! NO! I have to check to see if they are injured. I can’t, look! What if they are under the tire! What if they are dead! Oh God No! That is how the nightmare starts. Then gather enough courage to check on the poor persons condition and call the dispatcher. Your head feels like it’s going to explode.

 

Help is on the way.   

 

But things are forever changed. 

 

 I was advised to not appeal the accident. At that time the union told me that the company had made the decision to give me a week off without pay. I wanted to appeal the accident, not to try to change the discipline, but to have a chance to present my concerns about the obstruction that the fare box creates in the right window to the City Safety official, who at that time sat in on the Safety Review Board. I felt it was important to speak directly to the person from City Safety and make them understand that the blind spot caused by the fare box, needed to be addressed. I was cautioned not to appeal and just take the week off.

 

I went along with this, only because my union representative advised me not to appeal, and that the Company wanted to set a date to discuss the too tall fare box and I was led to believe that changes would be considered. A week later Marvin Pritchard, ATU 19 VP and I met with the Company and I was very excited that I was going to have this dangerous obstruction caused by the fare box corrected. When we met with the Assistant Manger Bruce Smith I proceeded to plead my case about the too tall fare box. But my concerns were cut short. I was told that the fare boxes would not be moved or lowered. That it was my responsibility to lean over the steering wheel or stand up if I had to, to see around the fare box.

 

 What a shock. This only compounded the pain I was feeling. Seriously hurting someone is a terrible thing to have to deal with. I was in shock and having flashbacks of the accident. And now no one wanted to hear about the dangerous blind spot.  No one cared about preventing the same kind of accident from happening again.  It was too late to appeal and share my concerns with City Safety. I felt like I had been had. I promised myself that I would always work toward getting the fare boxes lowered.

 

I have shared my concerns with every General Manager that has come and gone here at Springs Transit since 1991. Springs Transit General Manager Jerry Mooney showed the most interest in trying to address the problem. He had me sit behind the wheel of the new 1993 Gillig buses, and we decided where to put the fare box to open up about 4” on the right side of the right window. This is the best that could be done. I my opinion this was not the answer. It did next to nothing to correct the problem.  But at least it was an attempt.

 

When I heard that the company was getting ready to purchase new fare boxes I checked with the maintenance superintendent and he told me that they were only going to buy new tops for the old fare boxes. I was mad and went to Larry Tenenholz and asked him about why they were only going to buy tops for the old fare boxes and told him that by doing so, the problem caused by the tall fare boxes would not be fix. He assured me that he was going to buy all new fare boxes, not just top off the old ones. I told him at that time that he needed to buy shorter fare boxes for the Gillig buses. He told me that he would look into it.

 

I was asked by the Company and the Union to go with the company on a pre-production purchasing trip to the Gillig manufacturing plant in Hayward, California to order 5 new 2001 Gillig Phantom buses. The company wanted to have a driver along to address the driver’s compartment. They said that they wanted a driver’s input to make the driver’s compartment ergonomically correct and to advise where to place switches on the dash pick a seat exc. I jumped at the chance to go, only because it was a chance to share my concerns about the blind spot caused by the fare box. And that is just what I did. As I was sitting behind the wheel of a new bus at the Gillig factory, (we were deciding what brand of seat to buy) I was checking out the seat and getting comfortable, looking from one mirror to the next and just scanning the area around the drivers compartment when I looked to the right and was stunned at the unobstructed view out the right window. As I lowered my eyes, there it was, a short fare box. I spun around in my seat and slammed my hand down on the top of the fare box and told Larry Tenenholz, “look at this fare box, it’s short, they do make short fare boxes. This is the fare box you have to buy.” He told me that it was the wrong company and I told him “I don’t care what company you have to go to, you need to buy shorted fare boxes for the Gillig Phantom buses”. This was a very heated conversation and the rep from The Gillig Factory told us to take this conversation back to Colorado. Larry told me that he would call me into his office and go over some schematics of fare boxes and see what we could do about the problem. This never happened. Once again my concerns were ignored. When the new fare boxes came in they were 41” tall, just like the old fare boxes. I was disappointed that Larry did not listen to me because we were stuck with the same dangerous obstruction for at last the next 15 years.

 

On August 22, 2003 twelve years to the day of my terrible pedestrian accident I heard a dispatcher, in what seemed to me a panicked voice call “ODE RED”.  Not base is code red, but “ODE RED”.  I remember thinking, is this the day? And as I found out later it was. The blind spot caused another tragedy. I was devastated when I heard the news that one of our drivers had a fatal accident with a pedestrian.

 

I’m sure you all know the rest of that story.

 

Once again the company is in denial about the seriousness of the obstruction the fare box creates in the right window. We were told that we would have an answer by the end of the first quarter of 2004. No new to report on the company’s decision on what they plan to do about the deadly obstruction which blocks the entire lower half of the right window. No remedy to the blind spot that contributed to the death of one of our passengers and gave a lifetime nightmare to one of our members.  I am still urging the Company to do the right thing. Order the shorter vaults and pedestal for the existing 41” fare boxes and give the drivers a clear view of one the most dangerous area a driver has to deal with, the front right corner of the bus. Yes, you might have to change out the vaults more often, but what is the price of a life, and the devastation it gives to the organization and community we serve.

 

There are other things being done.  The Colorado Springs press has taken an interest in this issue.  A Colorado Springs police officer recognized the blind spot as “the largest and potentially most unsafe factor” he has seen, presenting “an unnecessary and unjustifiable risk for the safe operation of the bus”.  Our union has brought this to the International level through our relationship with the ATU Northwest Conference.  We have discovered this issue is unique to certain transit properties with similar equipment.  At the next ATU Northwest Conference in June and at the ATU International Convention we will be presenting a resolution to have the ATU International commission an independent study on transit coaches, transit equipment and obstacle, blind spots and recommendations to correct these safety hazards.  These results will be reported to the various transit properties, ATU local unions, FTA, APTA and other professionals in the transit industry.  While we cannot force the company to remove the blind spot caused by the fare box, we will strive to have the industry recognize this problem and put pressure on the transit companies around the U.S and Canada to do the right thing and remove this obstacle to safety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Submitted to us by a concerned passenger.

 

 

 

I Hear Things

 

By Greg Green, ATU 19 Sec/Treasurer

 

 

Why a Union

 

            While driving in the shuttle one day I heard another union member say “They (the union) take money from my paycheck every payday but I don’t see what I get for it.”  Well, I thought I might take this opportunity to let everyone know, who doesn’t know “what I get for it”, what you get for it.

 

You get:

 

Job protection:                        Without the Union you could be dismissed at anytime for any reason                                                                  management felt like.  If you thought it was wrong you would have to                                                                 take it to the labor relations board and fight their lawyers alone.

 

Vacation:                    Without the Union you would have to take what management wanted to                                                                       give you.  And they could change it anytime they wanted to.  Taking                                                                  vacations would be on a first come first serve basis and they could play                                                              favorites.

 

Run Choice:               Without the Union they would be able to assign any run to anyone they                                                              choose whenever they choose.

 

Forty Hours:               Without the Union there could be mostly part time jobs.  It is cheaper.

 

Seniority:                    Without the Union would it count?  My experience says NO.

 

Wages:                      Without the Union nothing would be guaranteed.  Basic wages, raises,                                                                pay freezes and pay cuts would be up to them.

 

            I could go on but you can read your contract.  Everything in there is yours because of the Union.  Without the Union everything you have now would be totally in the hands of Management.  I know I think all I have is worth a few dollars a month.  How about YOU?  In case you’re wondering if I know what I am talking about I spent 26 years working in a “Right to work” state.  The bumper sticker that says “United we stand.  Divided we beg.” is accurate.

 

 

The Union Should Do Something.

 

            I was talking to a driver at the terminal the other day and I said we should open the contract on the subject of the cameras on the buses being focused on the drivers.  The other driver said “The Union should do something about that.”  I told the driver that we are the Union.  The Executive Board cannot do anything by their self.  Without the support of the members there is no Union.  Without the Union we cannot accomplish anything for our selves.  Don’t like the idea of cameras?  Get involved.  Don’t like our wages?  Get involved.  Don’t like something else?  Get involved.  Without a strong membership we cannot have a strong Union.  Don’t let what others have worked and died for go to waste.  GET INVOLVED!  It is your future.

 

 

ATU 19 PICNIC

SUNDAY JUNE 6^th

(Invitations to be mailed in May)

 

Bear Creek Park

8^th Street and Argus Drive

 

 

 

Great                 Food

Adult Games – Horseshoes, Badminton, Volleyball

Children’s Games

Play Ground for Children

Prizes