Although memories of the six-week transit strike of 2004 still may be fresh, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) 1005 is back in negotiations. The two-year contract which settled the strike ? adopted a year late ? expires July 31, 2005.
Local 1005 is proposing a three-year contract, reported president Ron Lloyd. "We'd like to get it done as quickly as possible without a strike to inconvenience the public," he said.
Some of Metro Transit's proposals, however, are "very mean-spirited," Lloyd said. The transit agency wants to drop arbitration provisions and, significantly, also wants to drop a no lock-out clause, Lloyd said.
The Legislature's recent move to provide $46 million in stop-gap funding for transit was welcome, Lloyd noted, but fell far short of the $1.8 billion in new transit funding vetoed by Governor Pawlenty. "The money they gave us keeps the lights on but it doesn't do anything more."
Reprinted from the Minneapolis Labor Review newspaper.
Although memories of the six-week transit strike of 2004 still may be fresh, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) 1005 is back in negotiations. The two-year contract which settled the strike ? adopted a year late ? expires July 31, 2005.
Local 1005 is proposing a three-year contract, reported president Ron Lloyd. “We’d like to get it done as quickly as possible without a strike to inconvenience the public,” he said.
Some of Metro Transit’s proposals, however, are “very mean-spirited,” Lloyd said. The transit agency wants to drop arbitration provisions and, significantly, also wants to drop a no lock-out clause, Lloyd said.
The Legislature’s recent move to provide $46 million in stop-gap funding for transit was welcome, Lloyd noted, but fell far short of the $1.8 billion in new transit funding vetoed by Governor Pawlenty. “The money they gave us keeps the lights on but it doesn’t do anything more.”
Reprinted from the Minneapolis Labor Review newspaper.