We Fight Hard Every Day for Every Member
By President Jimmie McCoy
ATU Local 1700 members took a big step forward on April 26. Hundreds of Greyhound employees rallied with family and friends at bus stations from L.A. and Atlanta to Cleveland for the union’s National Day of Action for Terminal Workers.
These brothers and sisters – who only won the right to join ATU a few years ago – are showing bravery by stepping forward and speaking up. Those of us drivers and others who have been union members for decades must show them that we have their back. That’s what solidarity looks like.
Local 1700 will be judged by how hard we fight every day for every member. We will all benefit when terminal workers bring home a decent contract. Their union dues went into the fight for the drivers’ and mechanics’ recent contract. Now it’s their turn at the bargaining table and it’s everyone else’s turn to support them.
Our growing movement still hasn’t moved Greyhound. The company continues to fight union proposals:
- Decent pay raise;
- National contract covering all Greyhound ticket agents, baggage handlers, food service staff and janitors;
- Rehire Patricia Vidrio, a lead worker in the L.A. cafeteria who was fired after returning from her mother's funeral in Mexico.
Management’s response leaves one option for union members: Turn up the heat!
Greyhound plans to celebrate the company's 100th birthday with a national tour of classic buses. On June 21, union members will picket the road show when it hits Washington, D.C. Watch for later rallies along the route.
We will remind the public that Greyhound has a long history of misdeeds over the last century, from propping up racial segregation to predatory business practices.
And we will point out that the company, after waging war against drivers during bloody strikes in the 1980s and ‘90s, is writing a dark new chapter in the terminal workers’ negotiations.
