Rantings of a Trimet Bus Driver-Book 3: ATU ROUNDUP

Local 1555, BART reach tentative agreement

OAKLAND, CA: Local 1555 and BART avoided a strike by reaching a tentative agreement just hours before the midnight Sunday, August 16 deadline. Read More

Detroit prepares for labor showdown

DETROIT, MI: ATU Local 26 President Henry Gaffney doesn't think unions will just sit back and accept the cuts Mayor Dave Bing says he might make in transit and other services. Read More ...

Hopes High in Windsor Transit/ATU Contract Talks

WINDSOR, ON: "I'm hoping we are not going to have any issues ... I can't say until the negotiations start," said Local 616 president Dragan Markovic. Read More...

ATU loses 3 more members in tragic deaths

In addition to Metro Operator Jeanice McMillan who died when her train crashed in Washington, DC, on June 22, three more tragedies took place in as many days, taking the lives of three ATU members:

AUGUST 9: CTA electriction Robert Pierce, 37, died August 9, after a two-week battle with Legionnaires' disease. Pierce complained in July of flu-like symptoms after being splashed in the face by a large amount of warm water from a machine used to wash el trains. It is not known whether the incident was the cause of his contracting the water-born virus.

AUGUST 10: Michael Nash, 63, a track repairman for Washington, DC's Metrorail since 1990, was working with 10 to 15 people replacing crossties along the outbound track between the Vienna and Dunn Loring stations in Fairfax, VA, when a machine called a ballast regulator struck and killed him about 9:50 p.m., August 10.

AUGUST 11: And, Chuck Everette, 58, left, a full-time driver assigned to Golden Gate Transit's extra board, was shot and killed along with a friend at the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge toll plaza.

ATU repeats the need to protect workers

TORONTO, ON: The ATU Canadian Council, the largest Transit, Inter-City, Para-Transit and School Bus Union in Canada, wants an end to the rapidly increasing incidence of assault on its drivers. Read More...

ATU drivers drop pounds to feed the hungry

RICHMOND, IN: Ten drivers recently shed a total of 205 pounds, ala "The Biggest Loser" television show, and turned that into a hefty donation to Circle U Help Center. Read More...