No More Doom & Gloom - Stand Together - Stand Tall!
Tags: Administration Salary, ATU 757, Budget Woes, Contract Negotiations, Doom n Gloom, furlough, GM, Lay-offs, The District, Union Meetings, You - The Membership Hello Brothers and Sisters. While the District continues to talk doomsday scenarios with the public and the operators who will listen, we have begun doing what we can do in the union to at least lighten the blow.
In all essence it is a similar model to what we put together last year with the idea being we try to create incentive to retire for those that are wanting to go. In addition we will be asking for a furlough option for the summer for those who want to go just not forever.
Remember, while stimulus money helped some last year, your union opened the last set of parachutes to save the four to five jobs remaining unprotected. We all came together last time around and I hope we can stand together once again but were not off to a good start.
In all essence it is a similar model to what we put together last year with the idea being we try to create incentive to retire for those that are wanting to go. In addition we will be asking for a furlough option for the summer for those who want to go just not forever.
Remember, while stimulus money helped some last year, your union opened the last set of parachutes to save the four to five jobs remaining unprotected. We all came together last time around and I hope we can stand together once again but were not off to a good start.
District PR & The Hope Crushing Machine
Since the District began their PR campaign mid February I noticed a change in many of your mindsets. The majority of you "get it" and see through the propaganda machine. After all, we have been down this road many times now and many senior drivers have seen this scenario more than they care to remember.
But a few of you reacted the way the district wanted to you to react and believe what the district wanted you to believe this time around. While most didn't bother going to our GM's employee "info" meetings, some of you did and came out somewhat troubled.
The thing to remember about The Districts "meetings":
The thing to remember about The Districts "meetings":
- When they show you numbers, remember, numbers can be made to lie and in this case, the books are cooked "well done." Because, they want you to to panic, to loose hope, and to turn on your union brothers and sisters.
- They want you to believe that the primary issues surrounding the shortfall are YOUR wages and YOUR benefits being too high in this crippled economy.
- They want you to feel as though its YOUR fault.
- They tell you that this silo of money is for this and that pile of money is for that...Its all baloney.
But The District never tells you what is truly relevant:
- What are the department heads making?
- How much is the average administrative employee' s salary and is that above or below what the market is paying?
- What is the administration to hourly wage employee ratio and how does that compare to other transit agencies?
- How much did the required funds matching for the EmX project(s) impact our general operating fund?
- Why are we buying new buses and why are we continuing to buy articulated buses when we we won't have anyone to drive them and artics are proven to be less efficient due to the excessive time lost in and out of service stops?
Why in all of this has the District not even talked about laying off administrative employees??
So many of these questions will be asked and answered by your union before the next press release so that you will know the truth.
In the mean time don't fall for the evasive maneuvers the District makes. This is all standard procedure on every property before a contract comes up. It may be true we are heading toward layoffs of some degree, but we cant just let them off the hook because they say they are victims of a faltering economy.
They have run this same story in good economic conditions (its true!). Make no mistake our District Leadership is responsible for this mess and the campaign they have put out there trying to divert the blame elsewhere proves it. They have (to date) spent more money and more resources getting the message out to the public and to the employees that 'the sky is falling' then they have actually trying to fix the problem.
In the mean time don't fall for the evasive maneuvers the District makes. This is all standard procedure on every property before a contract comes up. It may be true we are heading toward layoffs of some degree, but we cant just let them off the hook because they say they are victims of a faltering economy.
They have run this same story in good economic conditions (its true!). Make no mistake our District Leadership is responsible for this mess and the campaign they have put out there trying to divert the blame elsewhere proves it. They have (to date) spent more money and more resources getting the message out to the public and to the employees that 'the sky is falling' then they have actually trying to fix the problem.
Remember, the only way we are going to get through this one way or the other, is by maintaining solidarity.We must stand together for we are only as strong as our weakest link
Brian Pasquali
Executive Board Officer
ATU 757 of Lane County
Here is the latest flier handout reminding you about Your Meetings & Your Union - if you missed it please take a look: Rally Cry
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