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Calvin Studivant

By Calvin Studivant
Alternate vice president, Bus Department

Fatigue management was a topic of significant importance earlier this month at a National Transportation Safety Board forum I attended in Washington, D.C.

The troubling news from the forum is that non-union bus operators, employed by so-called low-cost carriers, are being forced to work too many hours, with many of the drivers clearly in violation of hours-of-service regulations.

For too many non-union bus operators, pay is so low they are compromised into working excessive hours to feed their families — and that means driving while fatigued. That’s not only unlawful; it’s dangerous.

Medical experts who study fatigue have concluded that going to work fatigued is like going to work drunk.

An effective solution is not necessarily revising the hours-of-service regulations; but rather revising the law that permits non-union carriers to avoid paying their drivers overtime rates.

At no time should low driver earnings be allowed to compromise safety, but that is the situation too many low-paid, non-union operators face.

Lack of training is another problem for non-union operators employed by carriers whose primary interest is putting a driver — no matter how poorly paid or poorly trained — behind the wheel.

Much emphasis is being placed on revising hours-of-service regulations and installing new technology such as collision warning systems and lane departure warnings. Yes, they are important in assuring safety.

Too often overlooked is the ability of carriers to intimidate drivers into violating the hours-of-service law; and the fact that new technology is not, in itself, a solution to the fatigue problem.

In my mind, it makes eminent good sense to put equal or more emphasis on assuring only qualified, alert and non-fatigued drivers are behind the wheel — drivers who are properly trained and properly recruited with competitive wage and benefits packages.

Within the UTU, we recognize this in our contracts, and it is time for federal and state regulators to recognize the issue among the growing number of so-called low-cost bus companies that put profit ahead of safety.

Take, for example, a bill currently being considered by the U.S. Senate — S. 453, the Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act. The bill would require safety improvements in construction of new buses, but missing in that bill is recognition that assuring the hiring and retention of properly qualified, fully trained and competitively paid drivers is equally important in assuring safe passenger transportation.

I will be leading discussions on these issues at our regional meetings in San Antonio and New York in June and July, and I hope as many of our drivers as possible will attend these regional meeting bus workshops.

We also will be discussing the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new rules for obtaining a commercial driver’s license (CDL) and commerical learner’s permit (CLP). Those new rules are posted on the UTU webpage.

In the San Antonio and New York regional meetings we also will be discussing opportunities for federal grants to help improve the skills of labor negotiators and encourage innovative approaches to collaborative labor-management problem solving. We will work with the UTU National Legislative Office and President Futhey to make application for a grant to the UTU.

I also call your attention to the Bus Department page of the UTU website at www.utu.org. A link has been added on that page to a recent DOT Motorcoach Safety Action Plan. Scroll down on that page and the link is in the fourth column to the right, under “Bus Safety”. The new FMCSA rules on obtaining a CDL and CLP also appear there.

VICTORIA, Texas — UTU member and Valley Transit bus operator Guadalupe Ruiz escaped injury May 12 when his bus was sideswiped by a pickup truck near here. Ruiz is a member of UTU Local 1670, Laredo, Texas.

The Associated Press reports that one of the bus passengers was killed and 21 other riders injured in the accident.

The Associated Press reports that bus was sent crashing into a light pole after being sideswiped. The bus was traveling from Houston to McAllen, Texas, on U.S. 77.

Witnesses told the Associated Press that Ruiz didn’t have time to react when the pickup sideswiped the right side of the bus. The pickup truck driver, who was not injured, was issued a citation for failing to yield the right-of-way at an intersection. Other charges may be brought against the pickup truck driver said the Victoria County district attorney’s office.

The members of Local 1596, Charlotte, N.C., have ratified a new three-year deal with Transit Management of Charlotte (CATS) by an overwhelming margin.

UTU represents bus mechanics on the property.

Major advances were made in job classifications and job protection, with a guarantee of no employee layoffs for 15 months following the ratification date.

UTU members also received a signing bonus, wage increases with guarantees, increases in tool allowances and company-supplied winter clothing.

Increases in the agency’s portion of contributions to the employee pension plan and agency maintenance of medical benefits were also part of the deal.

I congratulate General Chairperson Alvy Hughes, Vice Local Chairperson Craig Patch, Local Committee of Adjustment Secretary James Hinton Jr. and Secretary and Treasurer Anthony Sandle for their patience and hard work throughout the negotiations.

I assisted these fine local officers with negotiations, but these local officers and other members of the committee did an outstanding job from start to finish. It was a privilege to work with such a hard working and dedicated group of members.

Despite sales tax revenue for the months of November and December being down 25 percent and 15 percent respectively, ridership and fare revenue are up on this property. CATS says year-to-date through the first seven months of fiscal 2009, ridership has increased 25.8 percent and fare revenue rose 53 percent. That’s good for the job security of these hard-working members.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — School bus drivers employed by First Student here and represented by the UTU have ratified a new agreement by a 213-90 vote.

The agreement ratified by members of UTU Local 1908 provides for wage increases retroactive to June 2010, no loss of benefits and improvements to a 401k plan.

Calvin Studivant, alternate vice president — East for the UTU Bus Department, helped to negotiate the new agreement. He praised the efforts of the Local 1908 negotiating team that included Local General Chairperson Dale McClain, Vice Local Chairperson Debbie Orlowski and Local Secretary Geneva Crutcher.

WASHINGTON — Observing that her five-year-old soccer-mom van contains safety technology more advanced than is integrated into many motor coaches, National Transportation Safety Board Chairperson Deborah Hersman March 30 chided Congress and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for dragging their feet on bus safety legislation and regulation.

Hersman testified before the Senate Transportation Subcommittee that available technology, if installed on motor coaches, could prevent many accidents and save many more lives. NTSB recommendations to this end have been ignored by Congress and federal regulators for years, Hersman said.

Safety advocate Joan Claybrook, who previously chaired the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told the subcommittee that the safety improvements advocated by the NTSB could be installed at the cost of five cents per bus ticket, based on annual bus ridership of about 750 million passengers.

Bus industry executives have been fighting for years to block mandated safety improvements, such as stronger roofs that won’t shear off or crush in accidents, and stronger windows, complaining the cost is too great.

Technology — such as electronic stability control to help prevent rollovers, cruise control that adjusts a vehicle’s speed to traffic conditions, and exits making it easier for passengers to escape after accidents — are examples of technology that exist “and it’s important that it be applied to the vehicles most in need of it,” Hersman testified.

The only safety improvements for motor coaches in the process of being mandated by the federal government are bans on texting while driving, the use of cellphones, installation of on-board recorders and installation of passenger seat belts — and even those rules have not be made final by regulators, the subcommittee was told.

The Department of Transportation testified that its attempt at requiring tougher driving training and testing standards have been challenged and blocked by courts. It has been more than six years since the DOT set out to redraft such rules.

Legislation was introduced in the Senate earlier this month to require much of what the NSTB advocates; but previous attempts as passage of similar legislation failed to gain sufficient votes in Congress.

To read more about that legislation, click on the following link:

https://www.smart-union.org/news/bus-safety-bills-introduced-in-house-senate/

By Vic Baffoni
Vice President, Bus Department
 

These are troubling times for our nation, states and municipalities. Budget problems are forcing cutbacks in a wide variety of public services, and public transit often is targeted for cuts.

At the extreme is the union busting going on in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and other states. But even where labor union collective bargaining isn’t under attack, we are facing severe challenges at the bargaining table and with cutbacks in service.

In the not too distant past, when the good times seemed as they would never end, government agencies borrowed and committed to future obligations. The future is now here and it is not a pleasant environment.

The UTU has negotiated some of the best contracts out there, but the economic landscape is now very different. Transit systems have laid off thousands of employees and reduced funding for services.

In Los Angeles, where the UTU represents more than 5,000 rail workers and bus operators, negotiations with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority are slow moving and tense.

The State of California has been furloughing workers, while many cities and counties have frozen wages and benefits as they struggle to pay their obligations. The mood of taxpayers is that taxes should not rise.

Too often, the lawmakers who approve budgets — even those who historically have been union friendly — are turning a deaf ear on the needs of working families, who are struggling to keep their homes and put food on the table.

In this environment, I commend LACMTA General Chairperson James Williams (GO 875) and his negotiating committee, which includes Robert Gonzales, Lis Arredondo, Ulysses Johnson, Eddie Lopez and John Ellis. They are committed to protecting and preserving everything in our contracts and are working tirelessly to improve working conditions and job security for the membership.

I remain confident in their abilities. They are among the best of the best at the bargaining table, as is evidenced by the contracts produced in the past.

In addition to fighting for members at the bargaining table, Mr. Williams and Local 1608 Chairperson John Ellis have recently won a significant arbitration case on behalf of bus operator Adalid Morgana, who had been terminated following an accident.

Working on Mr. Morgana’s behalf, the UTU prevailed on evidence presented in the arbitration and won for him back pay and benefits.

Warning: Do not try this without your employer’s permission.
That said, a bus driver in Geneva, Switzerland, has gained television stardom there for her singing while at the wheel, reports AFP international news service.
The 49-year-old female driver, Maya Wirz, was given to singing opera while on the job, and soon gained the nickname of Switzerland’s Susan Boyle. “I want to sing for heaven’s sake,” the driver told the AFP.
So after a 13-year career as a bus driver, she is now flirting with national stardom, reports the AFP.
She also sings in the bath, she told the AFP — probably a better place for most wannabe sopranos than on the job.

SAN FRANCISCO — First Student school bus drivers here, represented by UTU Local 1741, have ratified a new wage and benefits agreement by a 72 percent majority.

“Our strategy was to keep negotiations limited to economics because the work rules in our contract are the standard by which most other school bus drivers measure their contracts — by any measure, one of the best contracts for school bus drivers in the country,” said General Chairperson Paul Stein. “Also, our health insurance benefits far exceed most San Francisco city workers.”

“Negotiators for the local were able to hold on to our health-insurance plan without premium increases,” Stein said. “We asked for wage increases for ourselves and a series of raises for the office staff and dispatchers that would bring them up to the level of the drivers. The increases we got for the staff was very nearly what was asked for, and was viewed by most as a victory.

“The unity of drivers and staff and the hard work of the members of the local committee who did the hands-on work of negotiations is a tribute to the abilities of working people willing to fight for what they deserve,” Stein said.

Decades ago, the chairman of New York Central Railroad complained that while freight could move cross country without being transferred from one boxcar to another, transcontinental passengers often had to change trains in Chicago.

Even today, on Amtrak, passengers must change trains in Chicago.

A similar complaint is heard regarding intermodal passenger transportation — the separation of terminals for train and motor coach transportation. In Washington, D.C., for example, an intercity bus terminal is blocks from Union Station, which hosts Amtrak and commuter rail.

In St. Paul, Minn., the intermodal passenger problem is being solved.

The Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority has broken ground on a $243 million multi-modal transportation facility in St. Paul, reports progressiverailroading.com.

The city’s 1920s-era Union Depot train station is slated to bring together rail, bus, motor vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian traffic by 2012, reports progressiverailroading.com. Local, state and federal funds are financing the project.

Amtrak intends to dispatch its Empire Builder through the renovated terminal, which will also serve as a transfer point for light-rail, Metro Transit and intercity bus service — and, eventually, be a hub for hoped-for high-speed trains between the Twin Cities and Chicago.

It has been fifty-five years since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus — “an act that challenged the moral conscience of an entire nation,” said President Obama Dec. 1 in honoring her legacy

Most historians date the beginning of the modern civil rights movement in the United States to Rosa Park’s act of courage on Dec. 1, 1955.

The Montgomery bus boycott lasted 382 days and brought Parks to the attention of the world. The Supreme Court subsequently struck down the Montgomery ordinance under which Parks had been fined, and outlawed racial segregation on public transportation.

Obama said the Montgomery bus boycott “marked a turning point in American history … and the eventual outlawing of racial segregation and discrimination. 

“Rosa Parks and the many other leaders and foot soldiers in that struggle for justice championed our founding principles of freedom and equality for all, and today, as we commemorate the anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, I encourage all Americans to honor their legacy — the legacy of Americans who marched bravely, worked tirelessly, and devoted their lives to the never-ending task of making our country a more perfect union,” said Obama.   

In 1996, President Clinton presented Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She received a Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.

After her death in 2005, at age 92, Parks’ casket was placed in the rotunda of the United States Capitol for two days — making her the only the only woman and second African-American in American history to lie in state at the Capitol.