PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

PUBLIC TRANSIT STRIKE FOR ALLEGHENY COUNTY?
by stephen donahue Sunday, Nov. 06, 2005 at 6:08 PM

Port Authority of Allegheny County bus/trolley drivers, cleaners, mechanics might strike by Thanksgiving.

At the usual monthly meeting of Save Our Transit on Wednesday November 2, 2005 those in attendance were startled to hear that some bus drivers have begun to tell riders that there will be a transit strike beginning on the day after Thanksgiving. This news still in the rumor stage then signaled the beginning of a nightmare, which many alert Port Authority riders have been dreading for a few years now. Since then the rumor has been substantiated via the pages of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review and various TV news and radio outlets.



According to the Tribune Review the leadership of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 85 is telling its members that, “a strike is their best option.” A vote by the members on whether or not to authorize a strike could happen on November 20. ATU Local 85 members have been working without a contract since July 1, 2005.

In response to ongoing state funding shortfalls that had put public transit service in jeopardy and which had fares on a seeming annual increase Save our Transit began to meet in March 2002. SOT conveners knew then that without a reliable and adequate source of dedicated funding for public transit operations in the Commonwealth of PA that not only would service continue to be cut and fares increased but that come contract time there would certainly be labor unrest and strikes.

At the very first public rally staged by Save Our Transit to protest the fare hikes and service cuts implemented on September 1, 2002 members of the group made it very clear that they did not want the Port Authority to balance its budget on the backs of its riders or its workers. At the same rally they made it clear that the state had the obligation to adequately fund public transit so that riders had good service and reasonable fares even while drivers, cleaners, mechanics and other Port Authority employees had just wages and benefits including family health care.

Save Our Transit members were aware from day one that politicians, policy wonks and even the Port Authority management would someday seek to divide riders against drivers. They were also aware that there were forces at work in the state seeking to ensure that public transit was kept under funded so that a starved out system could be the catalyst for mandated union concessions and the privatization of the system. Indeed, after the demise in 2004 of the two most promising funding bills to be filed in Harrisburg for years, state policy makers began to send out reports to public transit activists calling for competitive biding of bus routes and contracting out of maintenance and repair of the fleet as the best alternative.

Pennsylvania policy makers don’t have the guts to adequately fund public transit systems across the commonwealth. Instead some of them seem content to simply watch public transit die as their more active right wing and neo-liberal comrades actively work to force transit entities to bust their unions and sell of the service.

And so it has happened that the Southeast PA Transit Authority (SEPTA) which serves over half a million people each day is presently idled by a strike and perhaps soon to follow will be the Port Authority of Allegheny County which serves over 200 thousand riders each day. The issues for each bargaining unit are about the same. Management is going after health care, pensions, wages, and work rules and in Allegheny County an extra issue is the privatization of some routes as well as the bus/trolley maintenance & repair.

One might think that state lawmakers would be concerned about this present situation but they ain’t. Nope they are still trying to decide whether they should give back the pay hike they recently rewarded themselves. Indeed some in the legislature who hate public entities such a transit are most likely happy to see that their years of ass scratching while public transit bled has paid off. The present labor unrest, should it lead to the final end to public transit in the state will facilitate the private and non-union takeover of mass transit entities in the state. This has been a stated goal of right wing and neo-liberal activists in Pennsylvania for years now.

Save Our Transit members endorsed the Thomas Merton Center’s “Pledge of Support for Working Families” a few months ago. By doing so the group has expressed a public commitment to stand against the privatization of public services including Port Authority routes and garage services. They are also strongly opposed to any attempts to undermine or bust public sector unions such as ATU Local 85.

A strike, should it come will be the fulfillment of a worse case scenario that many SOT members have been chasing out of their heads for some time now. A public transit strike will hurt mostly poor and low income “captive riders” much more than it will “riders of choice” who will simply get their cars out of the garage and drive to work. Should a strike come some people will lose their jobs because they have no way of getting around. Should a strike come it will take years for ridership to recover, if indeed it ever does. Should a strike come politicians and their right wing allies will sit around and slap each other on the back as they wait to see how many transit workers will cross the picket line and tell their union companions to fuck off. Should a strike come many riders will blame the drivers and the mechanics and those who clean the buses. They will join with the politicians in going after “greedy unions.”

However, should a strike indeed come others will stand with the union even as they endure the hardship of having no way to get around other than walking. These people will remember that one cannot be neutral on a moving bus. May their numbers be numerous. And may the Pennsylvania politicians all rot in hell!

Save Our Transit will hold a PUBLIC TRANSIT APPRECIATION RALLY on Wednesday November 16, 2005 at the State Office Building, 300 Liberty Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh. The rally will begin at 12 noon and end by 1:00 pm.