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ECAT Union Postpones Strike
October 21, 2013
The union that represents Escambia County Area Transit employees has postponed a strike set to being today.
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1395 Negotiating team has agreed to postpone the set strike date of October. The union has agreed to meet with First Transit management on Tuesday and Wednesday.
First Transit manages the ECAT bus system on behalf of the Escambia County Board of County Commissioners.
The negotiating session will be held at the ECAT main conference room.
“We will reevaluate our position on the strike after we bargain with First Transit, while our bus riders are priority we postpone the strike date because of them, but it has been a year and half with First Transit and it’s time the Transit workers have a contract to focus entirely on the job of providing transportation to our bus riders,” said Michael Lowery, president/business agent for ATU Local 1395.
“We’ve gone over 3 years with an expired labor contract under former Management team Veolia Transportation and now First Transit and almost 6 years without a raise and our retirement benefit is completely unfair compared to employees under the Board of County Commissioners,” Lowery said.
Comments
13 Responses to “ECAT Union Postpones Strike”
I ride the bus twice a week, traveling on 2 routes each trip to pick up my rental car. 55N and S is always full (it runs every hour). 45 N and S is usually about 3/4 full (it runs every 30 minutes. The riders I see are college kids, Navy personnel, riders going to the two plasma centers on each route, special needs workers who placed in their jobs who will never get licenses, dui charged citizens w/out licenses, people going to work who don’t have a car or second car, and wheelchair bound passengers. Can’t speak for the other routes.
When I started riding back in 2000, fare was $1 and diesel $1.35. Now the fare is $1.75 and diesel is $3.87. It doesn’t take rocket scientists to see that fares have not kept up with fuel costs, which have tripled since 2000. The fare needs to be at least $3.
Some of the routes, like 57, are ridiculous with an hour and 40 minute run between repeated stops. Buses serving main transit corridors during the week need to run every 30 minutes or they won’t be used. 57 goes right by my house mostly empty, but I walk 6 blocks to catch 55 because, even at an hour run, it’s better coordinated with the 30 minute routes to transfer down the line.
The county is paying for the bus drivers, using the management company as a go between. The costs were included in the contract.
Bus ridership in Escambia County is up over 10% a year in the last two years.
I have lived in this county since 1986 and have never had a child in an Escambia County school; yet as a homeowner, I have paid property taxes supporting schools I’ll never used for decades. I don’t gripe about it because the county need schools.
You don’t get rid of public transportation; you fix what’s wrong, make it more conducive to ridership and make it more cost supportive.
The county needs to resume direct ownership of the transit system, get rid of the union, raise the fares, and balance the routes. It’s a hell of a lot easier than running a jail.
Actually, we *do* need bus service. Probably more than less. This is how the working poor get to work and stay off the welfare rolls. Would you prefer to pay them to stay home, sell drugs, or steal?
How are the workers at Walmart who can’t afford a car or insurance able to get to work without public transit. Who’s going to ring up your six pack that you need to forget all the abuse you get at work? In this same paper right next to this article they announced the building of a new Walmart. Great job for a teenager. Lousy job for a single mother of three who has a child with medical needs. Walmart wants you to foot the bill for her low wage and lack of insurance as I’m sure you don’t want the
ACA (obamacare)in your county.
P.S
If you really believe what you say why do you not post your real name.
What are you afraid of
There are just bored becuase of poor rider particpation.
These union leaders can’t get along with anybody! They couldn’t negotiate with Veolia, and now they’re having the same issues with First Transit. Perhaps it’s time for Mr. Lowery and his crew to look in the mirror and realize that their radical, in-your-face, “me first” approach doesn’t work very well for either their members or for the citizens who ride (and pay for) the ECAT system. Face it…you’re never going to get County benefits. Time to get off that sticking point and to try to reach agreement with somebody for a change. Otherwise, the employees would be wise to vote you out of office & elect somebody who can actually…you know…negotiate.
Go ahead and strike, see if I care.
Most counties across the country are reducing their staffs — through attrition and sometimes by way of layoffs. Escambia County got rid of “county bus drivers” years ago for a reason — it cost too much. There is absolutely NO reason to bring these dissatisfied workers BACK under the county’s payroll with all the benefits it entails.
Lowery and his union drivers didn’t like Veolia — so they pitched a fit and constantly wanted to strike until the county agreed to throw them a bone and go with a different management company. The old saying, “be careful what you ask for” is certainly illustrated here. They got a new management company — First Transit. Not a year went by before Lowery and his union started griping about them too.
Trust me, Lowery wants the County to take back the drivers — but it wouldn’t involve the union going away. He would still be there — as a “shop foreman” — making the lives of county employees and department heads miserable with continued demands and threats to strike.
Lowery wont be satisfied until the bus drivers are county employees — and the highest paid employees in the county. All for what? To drive virtually empty buses around the county roads?? Let’s do an experiment — shut down the bus service for a month, furlough the drivers — and see how many “riders” actually miss the service. Once the drivers realize how fortunate they are to actually have jobs – maybe they will realize working without a “contract” isn’t so bad,
Unions have outlived their purpose and have fallen out of favor nation-wide. It’s time to do away with Lowery and Amalgamated Tranist Workers….
ECAT…if it continues to run, should be brought under the county and dump the out of area companies involved. Dump the Union and make them County Employees. They may have to take a pay cut, but they would no longer have Union Dues to pay. Seems they are in the news, about strikes, way to often.
Haven’t we had enough of ESCAT already?
I say its time to get rid of ecat AND the idiots that tax us to support it.
Enough is enough.
If you have seen any of the commision meetings you know the county said they would consider taking it in house if the transit folks would consider pay reductions to put them more in line with the boards employees.
WIN WIN
fire ecat …we don’t need it
These guys are always threatening a strike or going on strike… They should be glad they have a job… leave it to the union.
This is a shame to happen locally.
There are some options:
-Have the county take it over completely.
-Dissolve the union. It doesn’t appear to be helping if they are 6 years from any raises.
I never understood why it was contracted out.