There has been a lot going on this year – including a lot of things we hadn’t planned on. The union has worked hard to make the unanticipated changes we’re going through beneficial to Local 1700 members.

Greyhound service workers whose jobs had been subcontracted are now back in the ranks of represented employees. The benefits of collective bargaining – including guaranteed pay increases, a health care plan, 401k, and other benefits, a grievance procedure, and a real voice at work have once again been won for workers who clean and help maintain Greyhound buses.

The union contract also applies to Greyhound’s new Bolt Bus curbside service in the Northeast, giving those drivers wages and benefits that had been unheard of in that segment.

And the prospective merging of the work of Carolina, Vermont and TNM&O Lines has the potential for making us a stronger, more unified union. There has been considerable discussion of this development as we get closer to taking a vote of the entire membership on the question of merging the four seniority rosters.

In order to fully inform all members of the effects of such a merger, a special supplement to the Local 1700 newsletter, Solidarity Road, containing all the rosters and details of all the work, is being mailed to each member.

As you will see when you get your copy of Solidarity Road, most drivers and most locations will be unaffected by merging the work and the rosters except for the beneficial effects of greater unity and increased bargaining power. The effects, both positive and negative, on locations where there are now separate rosters, are clearly shown. On the negative side for current Greyhound drivers, merging rosters will result in some subsidiary drivers being placed ahead of some Greyhound drivers. That is obviously not something that anyone in their right mind would freely accept if that was all there was to it.

But the merge will result in more work and more work choices for the majority of drivers. So the overall benefit has to be weighed against the downside part of the deal. The executive board unanimously endorses a vote in favor of the merger and vows to work diligently to turn a negative into a positive – that is, to use the new unity and strength we gain in the trade off to win major advances for over the road bus drivers.

We have a unique opportunity now to build on the organizational steps we took last year in our fight for a fair contract. The last thing we need is to dissolve into rancor and division when we must concentrate on building unity for the battles ahead.

Attend your union meetings for full discussions of these important issues.

Stay safe.