As most of you know, next week ATU 1700's Executive Board will begin contract negotioations with Greyhound.  In preperation, we have been ramping up our communications tools so that we can keep all members informed.  As of now we have multiple ways to get our message out to you, below I will describe some of them in detail:

1) ROADKILL Hotline

We've been hard at work getting ready for this fall with a couple of new features and sections of the website.  First and foremost I'd like to direct your attention to the new photo gallery in Region 4 created by VP Karen Miller.  Karen has been busy uploading photos of the membership that she has taken throughout her travels around Region 4.  We've also created a couple of additional galleries for photos of Retirees in her region along with some special events such as the ATU International Womens Caucus.  You can find her picture gallery here :

I've just created a member downloads section of the website.  We were looking for easy ways to distribute digital documents to our members in a form that they could easily download and save on their own computers or print out to use as a refrence.  Check it out here: atu1700.org/member_downloads or navigate to it by using the main menus on the top left of the site.

It looks like the long winter is not yet over at Greyhound.  We’re still trying to make sense of the mileage and job cuts just now going into effect (and trying to come up with alternatives to the slash and burn methods the company is using), and now the company announces plans to go on a witch hunt to further terrorize its workers.

Local 1700 is unique, we are the only local in the Amalgamated Transit Union that is National.  With our members spread across the country, it is difficult for us to know what our fellow brothers and sisters are going through on the job.  It's hard for us to create the sense of community amongst our members that our union needs to thrive.

Enter the Member Forums...

My name is Luke Franco and I have been working on the ATU 1700 Web site with Bruce Hamilton in the national office. Currently, I am working on making the "Members Section" of our site more useful.   I've decided to begin keeping a blog so that people can keep tabs on whats going on with Local 1700's web site and the new features and programs we are enacting.

A Call To All Stewards!

         The company has finally come to its senses and agrees to comply with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement in paying run guarantee claims.  Going forward, drivers who through no fault of their own arrive at a terminal too late to operate the next portion of their run, will once again be paid as we always used to be paid before the company started shorting many drivers a couple of years ago.  Drivers in that

Today we pause to commemorate the 80th birthday of the Revered Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and to rededicate our union and ourselves to the struggle for economic equality for which Dr. King gave his life. For our union, every day must be Dr.

We all look forward with tremendous hope to a fresh new year and a fresh chance to make the kinds of changes we have long been working for. Yet in many ways it does not appear that this New Year will begin on a very happy note. The criminal lords of finance who are destroying the world economy are making the beginning of 2009 into a real challenge for working people.