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Michelle Sommers Local 1005 Officers Union Office Phone 612-379-2914 e-mail [email protected] www.atu1005.com Jerry Ewald Ron Lloyd Remember that the contract agreement between ATU 1005 and Metro Transit not only effects your work life, but it can also greatly impact your family and home life. This contract meeting is your best opportunity to ask questions and to be heard. President/Business Agent Kellie Miller Financial Secretary Treasurer Mpls. Page 2 Vice-President .
Citation preview
December
Calendar16 Education
Committee
23 Executive
Board
23 Union
Meeting
Mpls.
Local 1005
Officers
President/Business
Agent
Ron Lloyd
Vice-President
Michelle
Sommers
Recording Secretary &
Asst. Business Agent
Kellie Miller
Financial Secretary
Treasurer
Jerry Ewald
Union Office Phone
612-379-2914
www.atu1005.com
THE
PRESIDENT�S
CORNER
ATU Local 1005
President–Business Agent
Ron Lloyd
Page 2
HAPPY HOLIDAYS! MAY YOU AND YOUR
LOVED ONES ENJOY THE SEASON IN
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
We want to encourage all members to attend the Contract
Meeting on Sunday, December 28, 2003, 11:00 AM, at the
Minneapolis Convention Center. The room will be open at
10:00 AM and copies of the contract offer will be available
for your review for one hour before the meeting is called to
order. The Executive Board members will announce their rec-
ommendation, the contract offer will be explained and your
questions and comments will be heard.
Voting will take place at the Convention Center following
adjournment of the meeting until 4:00 PM. Members who are
unable to attend the Sunday meeting may come to the Union
Office, 312 Central Avenue, Room 438, Minneapolis, between
9:00 AM and 5:00 PM to pick up a copy of the proposed offer
and to vote.
Remember that the contract agreement between ATU 1005
and Metro Transit not only effects your work life, but it can
also greatly impact your family and home life. This contract
meeting is your best opportunity to ask questions and to be
heard..
Page 4
Part One: Background: Why, what, where and how!
Part Two next issue: Inside the world of LRT
BY LIZBETH GOLDBERG
HIAWATHA LIGHT RAIL TRANSIT
Metropolitan Growth and Congestion:
With 2.6 million people, the Metropolitan area currently ranks 14th in the nation in population, remain-
ing fairly constant over the past twenty years. However, our congestion rank has risen from around
40th in 1980 to 34th in 1990 to 17th today.
Congestion:
Texas Transportation Institute's annual urban mobility report ranked St. Paul and Minneapolis as having the
nation's 17th worst traffic among the 75 cities surveyed. The Twin Cities experienced the fourth-highest rate of
congestion growth from 1996 through 2001. Two years ago, 71 percent of metro area commuters experienced
traffic congestion during rush hours. Up from 13 percent in 1982, when the studies began, Tim Hinkel,
Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDot) Program Manager reviewed the study for MnDot. He said
"While buses, ramp meters and "freeway incident management" help alleviate congestion in the region, it's clear
those strategies and the current highway construction program aren't keeping pace with the growth in traffic."
Pioneer Press, Oct. 1, 2003
Population and Growth:
- Between 1990 and 2000, the population of the Twin Cities grew 15.4%, from 2,288,721 people (1990 census)
to 2,968,806 (2000 census), nearly 3% more than the estimated 12.65% growth.
- Between 1990 and 2000, the number of households in the Twin Cities grew 16.7%, from 875,504 to 1,021,454,
more than the estimated growth of 14.35%.
- The Twin Cities is the 15th most populated metro area. (New York is first with a population of 21,199,865;
Kansas City, with a population of 1,776,062, is 25th.)
- According to the 1990 census Minnesota ranked 10th in percent of population that use public transportation
(5.3%).
Forecast and Framework of Met Council:
The Met Council has conducted preliminary forecasts for the seven-county region to 2030. Findings include:
- Continued strong growth: 930,000 more people, 460,000 more households, and 550,000 more jobs.
- Household growth in the next two decades expected to surpass any previous decade.
Immigration, typically one-third of region's growth, will increase its share by 2030.
Page 6
AT THE GARAGE
SouthContact Liz Goldberg
Dan AbramowiczHired in August of 1992 as a
Driver operator, Dan has called
South Garage home for all of
his eleven years, along with
serving as South's Union
Representative since 1995.
"In 1995 I took the job as
Union Rep, I wanted to try it
and see what it was like. My
first year, we had the strike.
Then Coleman restructuring. I
was a new board member and it
was tough; 1996 was the tough-
est. Then as time went on, it
started to swing forward. Now
my biggest challenge is trying to
keep track of drivers and their
numbers."
"In 2000 I turned down a
Schedule Making position that I
had applied for in 1999. I decid-
ed to hold off on it; I like my
job here and I still like driving.
I like the interaction in the
garage. People know me, they
like me and I like them and I
get along with management."
"I put it this way: I have a good
relationship with management,
but a better one with drivers."
In May 2002 Dan married MJR
Operator and Union
Representative Michelle
Sommers, who has since been
elected Local 1005 Vice
President.
"My marriage to Michelle is the
best thing that's ever happened
to me! My wife helps me a lot.
She is my sounding board. She
is my inspiration - both emo-
tionally and intellectually.”
Dan is also Editorial Board
member on the Education
Committee
The Nicollet Service
Advisory Team (SAT)
developed the Operating
Conditions Report (OCR) in early
2000. The purpose of the OCR
was to simplify and combine the
numerous forms used for similar
purposes, and more importantly,
to provide a method for tracking
and responding to concerns.
The OCR would replace various
documents: Employee
Suggestions for Schedule,
Headway and Map Changes,
Report of Overloads and Passing
Up, and District Supervisor
Request for Service
Planning/Scheduling Assistance.
The OCR provided a single docu-
ment for employees to submit
schedule concerns for review.
The Driver Exception Report
(DER) and Running Time Report
Card would remain in use, as they
are primarily used for other pur-
poses and don't provide sufficient
data to warrant a schedule change.
The proposed form was reviewed
by the SAT at each of the service
garages. Each SAT held meetings
at their garage to present the OCR
concept and to answer drivers'
questions. Large posters were
created for an OCR "How to Use"
guide and displayed in the drivers
rooms at all the garages. Trainers
and garage managers encouraged
operator use of the OCR to
address service concerns.
Initially, the OCR was a paper
document; the first OCR was sub-
mitted in December 2000. The
current electronic OCR program
replaced the paper-based one on
January 1, 2003, with little fan-
fare. Drivers continued to submit
an OCR to a garage manager, dis-
trict supervisor, trainer or coordi-
nator, or in the 'OCR Drop Box'.
The manager or designated
appointee at each garage is
responsible for the first review of
each OCR. If the garage repre-
sentative believes the concern
doesn't warrant a schedule change,
an explanation will be sent to the
driver, for instance, 'your report of
overload is acceptable under our
peak load standard of 125% of a
seated load on local routes'. If the
representative agrees with the
concern, it is forwarded to Service
Development and an acknowl-
edgement sent to the driver.
Forwarded OCRs are logged elec-
tronically in Service Development
and tracked similarly to customer
contacts in Customer Relations.
A contact person is responsible for
logging responses, assigning them
Have You Submitted
an OCR Lately? By Sheila Miller
Continued Page 15
Page 8
Not all results were positive how-
ever. In Denver bus vandalism
soared until the system launched
an anti-vandalism program in area
schools and began assigning plain
clothes security personnel to cer-
tain buses. Several operators also
objected to overcrowding of the
buses, scheduling problems and
difficulties with joy-riding juve-
niles. High inflation and concerns
with growing public deficits were
the main culprits in ending
progress of the no-fare experi-
ments.
Experiments Doomed
By the late 1970's financial con-
siderations had propelled several
transit systems including those in
Washington DC and Chicago to
increase fares. In 1979 operators
represented by Dallas Local 1338
found themselves collecting fares
50% higher than those of the year
before. Not long thereafter all talk
of fare reductions was quieted
when the newly elected Reagan
Administration threatened to make
significant cuts in federal transit
funding and pledged to shift fed-
eral program costs to local gov-
ernments.
CRYPTOS by PAT KELEHAN
Each letter stands for another. Ifyou think X=O, for example, itwould equal O throughout thepuzzle.
Clue: C=I
HUM TXCLX KZB DFMGTHDG YDBH
UCB UTCG FCMPM QUML BQCHPUCLX
DL HUM RGCSMG'B ATL. UM QTB
RCBPCFYCLMR ADG KYDQCLX UCB
HDF!
Answer on page 19
History
Continued from Page 3
Other Members that
have died: Paul
Derrick # 1479 -
Retired.
Timothy McRaven
4/15/69 - 11/30/03
Tim, Operator #9669, passed
away at the age of 34, after an
unexpected illness. He was
first hired as a part-time driver
in 1996; Tim left service the
same year and was re-hired
April 1998 and drove out of
Heywood garage.
Tim had a quiet presence, but
you always knew he was "in
the house". He was loved by
many and will be sorely
missed. Tim is survived by his
wife, Shantell, twin daughters
born in December 2003, his
parents, three brothers and
many other relatives and
friends. Tim's brother
Donald (Bruce) Mc Raven, is
South operator #9019.
"He touched many and will
never be forgotten," say his
union brothers and sisters.
Page 10
cent of transit passenger-mile
growth in the U.S. from 1990-
2000. Buses accounted for 4 per-
cent and other modes 12 percent.
Source: APTA
Without Metro Transit and other
regional bus operators, Twin
Cities residents would spend an
additional $222 million each year
on lost time and wasted fuel. Source: Urban Mobility Report 2003,
Texas Transportation Institute
Twin Cities' households devote
17.9 cents of every dollar to trans-
portation, spending an average of
$9,167 a year to get around. The
Twin Cities ranked 17th most
expensive of 28 major metropoli-
tan areas based on the amount
families spend on transportation. Source: Transportation Costs and the
American Dream - Why a Lack of
Transportation Choices Strains the
Family Budget and Hinders Home
Ownership, Surface Transportation
Policy Project.
Light Rail Legislative Timeline
1975: Minnesota Legislature pro-
hibits the Metropolitan Transit
Commission (MTC) from using
transit tax levies for any prelimi-
nary work on an automated fixed
guide-way system. (Laws of
Minnesota 1975, chapter 13, sec-
tion 71(d))
1980: Minnesota Legislature
directs the Metropolitan Council
to conduct a feasibility study of
light rail transit in the metropoli-
tan area. (Laws of Minnesota
1980, chapter 607, article 13, sec-
tion 3)
1984: Minnesota Legislature cre-
ates Regional Transit Board
(RTB). (Laws of Minnesota 1984,
chapter 654, article 3, section 116)
1985: Minnesota Legislature pro-
hibits any expenditure of public
funds on light rail transit. (Laws
of Minnesota 1Sp 1985, chapter
10, section 105)
1987: Minnesota Legislature
removes the 1985 prohibition by
giving any regional rail authority
the ability to study, plan, or design
a light rail transit system. (Laws
of Minnesota 1987, chapter 405,
section 4) In addition, the
Metropolitan Council is allowed
to cooperate with the regional rail
authorities in light rail transit
planning. (Laws of Minnesota
1987, chapter 405, section 3)
1988: Minnesota Legislature
appropriates $4.17 million (avail-
able only if matched with dollar
for dollar amounts from other
funding sources) for regional rail-
road authorities to plan, design
and construct light rail transit
facilities. (Laws of Minnesota
1988, chapter 684, article 2, sec-
tion 2)
1989: Minnesota Legislature
requires the RTB to adopt a
regional light rail plan. (Laws of
Minnesota 1989, chapter 339, sec-
tion 12)
Minnesota Legislature creates the
Joint Light Rail Transit Advisory
Committee to assist the RTB in
LRT planning. (Laws on
Minnesota 1989, chapter 339, sec-
tion 13)
1991: Minnesota Legislature cre-
ates the Light Rail Transit Joint
Powers Board. (Laws of
Minnesota 1991, chapter 298, arti-
cle 7, section 8)
1993: Minnesota Legislature
establishes the Corridor
Management Committee (Laws of
Minnesota 1993, chapter 353, sec-
tion 12)
1994: Minnesota Legislature abol-
ishes the RTB. All duties and
responsibilities are transferred to
Hiawatha Light RailTransitContinued from Page 5
Hiawatha Light Rail Facility - Receiving
Feeder Bus Service: 46 Metro
Transit routes will connect to 13
rail stations with timed transfers,
delivering 20% of all rail cus-
tomers to their station. Bus serv-
ice to provide neighborhood
access to the LRT and facilitate
cross-town and reverse commute
travel options.
Fare collection: Self-service, bar-
rier free, proof of payment.
Fare price: Light-rail fares will
be the same as bus fares.
Transfers will be valid between
bus and rail if used within 2 ½
hours.
Construction funding: (in mil-
lions)
Federal Transit Administration
(FTA) - $334.3
State of Minnesota - $100
Metropolitan Airports
Commission (MAC) - $87
Hennepin County Regional Rail
Authority - $84.2
Federal Grant for Congestion
Mitigation & Air Quality
(CMAQ) - $49.8
Transit capital grant - $39.9
Minnesota Department of
Transportation (MnDOT) - $20.1
TOTAL $715,300,000
Partners:
Metropolitan Council - owner
Metro Transit - operator
MnDOT - design and construction
Metropolitan Airports
Commission
Hennepin County
City of Bloomington
City of Minneapolis
October 2003:The Hiawatha light-
rail project was more than 80%
complete and continued to be on
time and on budget.
Vehicles:
Five light rail vehicles are in the
LRT maintenance facility and are
being tested for performance and
safety on tracks between the
Cedar Riverside and Lake Street -
Midtown stations.
Construction Progress:
Twelve stations have been com-
pleted in Minneapolis; crews are
completing installation of tracks
and electrical wires, signals and
gate arms at
crossings.
Construction
crews will
move south
at the end of
this year to
complete
facilities at
the airport
and in
Bloomington
to the Mall
of America.
Bloomington
construction
began in
April; crews
will progress in stages down the
median of 34th Ave. Both airport
tunnels have been mined success-
fully without cost overruns or
schedule delays.
The Metro Transit Light Rail
Transit Operations and
Maintenance Facility was com-
pleted in spring 2003. The facility
will house LRT vehicles, opera-
tional and maintenance facilities
and the rail Control Center.
Bloomington/Mall of America
realignment:
An enhanced alignment will relo-
cate the Mall of America Station
within the Mall's existing transit
center, and triple park-and-ride
capacity.
Signals: Train detection signal
lights.
Grade Crossings: Graded=15
Traffic lights with
preemption = 10
Traffic lights without
Preemption =8
Stations:
Each station will feature a unique
design that reflects the character
of the surrounding neighborhood.
Stations are expected to attract
transit-related development, such
as housing, stores, and services, in
nearby areas. The city of
Minneapolis is coordinating plan-
ning for each station.
Bus/light rail coordination:
Metro Transit service planners are
working to ensure that bus routes
and schedules will be closely
aligned with light rail.
Corridor residents fear that that
neighborhood streets will fill with
cars left behind by light-rail pas-
sengers. Met Council hired park-
ing experts to suggest remedies
that have worked for other cities
Page 12
Out on the Track under I-94
Page 14
ANGERThis subject has been covered well in a book by McKay, Rogers, and McKay. Our human emotions
have been the topic of many books, articles and countless investigations. Anger has been called right-
eous indignation that calls us to act in moral defiance to injustice. Feelings of being attacked, con-
trolled or abandoned often bring the kind of stress that we need to cope with. We have often sub-
scribed to the theory that anger just needs to be expressed for mental health, but the authors of this
book tell us that these ideas and other popular concepts are incorrect. They boldly claim, "anger is
rarely inescapable and seldom necessary." They use some powerful ideas to back up this claim.
Relieving stress and coping with anxious, painful moments is a goal and the temporary result of anger.
It is not, however the anger that is legitimate and right, but the human suffering stimulated by the
experience of stress.
Anger, however, is just one of the many coping strategies available to discharge stressful stimulus.
These coping strategies are necessary because our picture of a world in which people act in good and
correct ways is often violated. While we were children, we quickly learned to control stress by looking
at how our parents cope and began making it part of our own behavior patterns. Anger, they point out,
it too often the strategy we use in spite of it's limited value. The cost of anger in stress reduction is
usually too high. It takes such a huge toll on us from a physical standpoint and it tends to damage rela-
tionships. People who use coercive strategies such as anger on a long term basis, can expect their sup-
port and appreciation to diminish over time. The anger cycle can feed on itself, is rarely about real
issues, and worst of all it can obscure the path to real solutions.
The most often cited reason to justify anger has been shown to lack merit. Failing to express anger
does not build up more anger. Additionally the trigger thoughts that we use to generate our anger may
be false, or at best very debatable, and our anger could, because of this, have no legitimate basis.
When we feel stress, we can choose another way of coping, we can turn away from angry triggering
thoughts. The authors encourage us to find individual ways of coping and suggest some of the follow-
ing:
1. Exercising
2. Intense work activity
3. Humor
4. Writing
5. Relaxation exercises
6. Verbalizing pain (self controlled)
7. Recreation
8. Problem-solving activities
9. Problem-solving communication
10. Music
11. Resting
12. Crying
By K. H. Rice
This list is by no means all there is, but these points are meant to give use some ideas. Any one of
these can be used instead of anger when you feel stressed. We'd like to know, what seems to work for
you? If you have an unusual or interesting idea and would like to share it with the rest of us, give us a
call. Unions rely on writing and problem solving and see value in these other ideas.
This information was taken from "When Anger Hurts" by McKay, Rogers, and McKay.
Page 16
In November, Local 1005 sent
two delegates to Miami,
Florida to participate in a rally
protesting the Free Trade Area of
the Americas (FTAA). Jerry
Ewald and I proudly carried our
ATU 1005 banner in a march
through downtown Miami, which
consisted of an estimated crowd
of 20,000 union members.
The Labor March went off with-
out incident; however, it was sort
of wild. The police presence was
unbelievable. There were thou-
sands of officers in full riot gear
lining the streets. They had
armored vehicles, tear gas, hel-
mets, shields and enough weapon-
ry to squelch any would-be riot-
ers. There was some violence
from an anarchist group through-
out the day but labor's representa-
tives held a peaceful rally.
We also attended a forum where
we heard workers from Brazil,
Columbia, Nicaragua, Mexico and
the United States tell how the
North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) has nega-
tively impacted their lives. The
workers spoke so passionately that
it was often hard to follow what
they were saying; their inter-
preters could hardly keep up, or
be heard, as the workers got loud-
er and louder, telling their stories
of mistreatment. However, their
message was still clear, SAY NO
TO THE FTAA. John Sweeney,
President of the National AFL-
CIO emphasized we must say NO
to corporate control of our gov-
ernments.
The FTAA expands NAFTA to
include Central America, South
America and the Caribbean. The
FTAA and the General Agreement
on Trade in Services (GATS) are
particularly worrisome to public
sector employees. These trade
agreements, if passed, will consid-
er services a tradable commodity.
This can force privatization of
public services such as utilities,
public transit, postal services, san-
itation, healthcare and education.
Multinational corporations can sue
governments for any actions that
could decrease future profits,
which could include public sector
employees competing with the
private sector. In addition, these
unfair trade agreements under-
mine our democracy by giving
multinational corporations more
power than our elected officials.
The FTAA sets ceilings on things
like environmental standards
rather than minimums. For exam-
ple, if the United States passes an
environmental standard that
exceeds the FTAA's standard, our
government can be sued for creat-
ing a barrier to the trade agree-
ment. The self-serving multina-
tional corporations have the abili-
ty to override a community's com-
mon good efforts in order to
improve their bottom line.
The deadline for negotiating the
FTAA and GATS is January 2005.
It is imperative that we have a
regime change in November 2004.
We must elect a President that
will protect worker's rights and
not sign these agreements into
law.
This issue is extremely important
to all of us. Please seek out more
information and get the word out
about how this will negatively
impact workers from around the
globe. We must demand fair trade,
not free trade.
More information is available at
www.aflcio.org/stopftaa,
www.globalexchange.org,
www.fairtradenow.org.
Local 1005 Protests in MiamiBy Delroy Schafer
Page 18
Letters
To The
Editor
Continued
an overall strategy to control costs
and the process of health care
delivery.
Health insurance companies
offered a different approach, with
more freedom of choice of doctors
but always more expensive.
Some tried to incorporate ele-
ments of control, like member
clinics, to control costs, but the
different entities were ultimately
independent and there was the
element of insurance company
profit(greed) driving costs.
Health care became an issue in the
1992 presidential race and the
Clinton Administration set out to
do something about the lack of
coverage and high cost connected
to coverage. Their solution was
to try to manage care. This
involved getting people to sign up
for some sort of managed care or
HMO in an attempt to emulate the
success of efforts like Group
Health to control costs.
This attempt sent a wave of panic
into the insurance companies for
various reasons, not the least of
which is federal regulation. You
see, in the land where insurance
was invented, after all these
years, there is still no federal reg-
ulation on insurance companies.
Regulation is left entirely up to
the states. The state with the
weakest regulation is Arizona,
thus the large number of
insurance companies in Arizona.
Don’t forget that just because a
company is headquartered in one
state doesn’t mean it can’t do
business in any other state; in fact
it is often the most profitable way
to conduct business.
Managed care would have brought
national competition and lowering
of costs and profits. Insurance
companies saw this threat to their
profits and fought the Clinton ini-
tiatives in two ways. One way
was an intensive lobbying and
public relations campaign with
several million dollars spent try-
ing to influence public opinion
and ultimately congressional
votes.
The other way was to go buy up
as many HMO’s as possible.
Either way the insurance compa-
nies still had the source of their
profits covered, expensive tradi-
tional insurance policies or owner-
ship of HMO’s. The strategy
worked better than their wildest
dreamers could have imagined, as
Congress rejected the proposed
plan and purchasing HMO’s was
easily accomplished.
In Minnesota, Group Health
was bought by Prudential and its
name changed to Health Partners,
leaving insurance executives in
control of the most successfully
cost-controlled delivery system in
the country. The implications for
insurance profits are truly
astounding.
We are left in a vulnerable spot by
our positions as consumers of
health care. The costs shown to
us recently show premiums of
$1130 per month split between
company and worker for depend-
ent coverage. That translates into
more than six dollars and fifty
cents per hour for a forty hour
work week, over $13560 per year.
Life insurance only costs about
ten percent of that amount.
I would like to suggest that there
is another way to purchase
health care. Under a single-payer
Canadian style plan, could it
possibly cost so much? In
Australia, health care can be pur-
chased from the government for
about $2400 a year and people
can opt out and receive a refund
of their taxes to purchase health
care from the private sector.
If a low-cost alternative to out of
control health insurance is offered
in this country, we can bet that the
insurance executives will be
fighting it all the way. After all,
it looks like as much as $10,000
of the annual cost is profit. When
the Province of Saskatchewan first
tried single payer, some thought
uninsured would move in and
businesses would move out.
What actually happened was that
businesses moved in because they
could guarantee health care for
their employees, giving them a
competitive advantage in attract-
ing workers that soon caused
other parts of Canada to follow
suit.
The State of Minnesota could go
beyond just buying cheaper
prescription drugs in Canada and
offer a single payer plan to once
again lead the nation in this field.
Just as Richard Nixon could go to
China in the 70’s without being
called a patsy of the Communists,
our conservative governor could
establish a single payer plan with-
out being called a Socialist.
Instead, he would be viewed as a
pragmatist making an innovative
attempt to solve a very tough
problem.
Frank Collins - South Dispatch
From the Executive Board
Happy Holidays