Today, in a fitting tribute on Dr. King’s birthday, workers at Greyhound’s Buffalo, New York terminal have voted to join the union!  Today’s vote brings Buffalo’s ticket agents, baggage handlers and other terminal workers back into the fold, and along with workers in Washington, DC, Jackson, MS, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Cleveland, Sacramento and Los Angeles, gives us all a much stronger voice at work.  Terminal workers deserve to have rights at work just as much as anyone else, and today’s vote puts us all closer to gaining the wages, conditions, and the respect that all working people deserve.  

            As bargaining continues for a new contract for Greyhound drivers, mechanics and service workers, the tough issue of health care, which is complicated by what’s going on in Congress right now, is taking a huge amount of the committee’s time.  As we all know, health care for Greyhound employees needs to be improved, and we would be remiss if we did not explore every avenue available to us before we commit to a plan for the next three years.  The union has offered some very good, creative solutions, and we may end up in some ground-breaking territory.  But at the end of the day, it is all about what compromise works best under the circumstances. 

            Tomorrow will be another day of dealing with this huge, difficult issue.  I’ll keep you posted on our progress.