People Are People So Why Should It Be...

Did you know that the RTD Union (Amalgamated Transit Union 1001) discriminates against Part Time Drivers at RTD?

I know I know, they are a liberal socialist club, why do I sound so surprised then, right?

Well let me tell you, it's 2010 and these unions have outlived their usefulness by about 50 years.
And they are still applying their 50 year old principles of discrimination and threats, etc as well.

Let's start over...

Drivers of all the buses; RTD, Veolia & First Transit are forced to join the ATU 1001 if they want to drive the bus. That Union extorts a fee from the Drivers each pay check.

And now the vote is coming up.
Actually, two votes:
The first being for Union Officers and the second being for the January Route assignments (Runs).
They both are illustrative of the discrimination.

The Union takes money from every Bus Driver.
Whether full or part time, the same amount is taken from our paychecks.
Retirees I believe have a lesser amount extorted from them.
But the HUGE difference in the amounts is that the Union only represents Full Timers.
They refuse to represent part time drivers, even though they work at least 75% of the hours of full timers.
Many part timers are working more hours than many full timers right now because the part time Drivers are allowed to volunteer for extra work.
So these part time Drivers are working only 25% less than the full time Drivers but get zero benefits, zero vacation, zero sick time and ZERO representation.

To make it more fun, the Union is holding their Officer Elections and there are no part timers allowed in the election.
Part timers are not allowed to vote nor are they allowed to be elected.
There is nobody to represent the part timer.

So as the Vote for the January-April  route assignments (runs) comes up, the full timers are voting/choosing their work for the next few months, as they always do.
Then the Part Time Drivers get to vote/pick through what's called "Trippers" for their 30 hours a week.
Trippers are the short 3, 4, & 5 hours runs that you see during peak times.
Most Part Timers end up having to vote for an AM (3-8ish) and a PM (3-8ish) type split to get their 5 days and 30 hours.
But as I've shown above, the Union hates the Part Time Driver and is making it evident this Vote.
They are allowing the Full Time Drivers to vote "extra work" by picking Trippers BEFORE the Part Timers get to vote.
So the Part Time Drivers are going to be hard pressed to find work during the First Quarter.

The Union hired close to 800 Full Time Drivers this last quarter of 2010.
And they went +30, meaning they hired 30 more than they needed to...
Which translates to 830 Drivers looking for 40 hours of work where there is none and they are going to demolish the Part Timer's Tripper boards.
Now the 200 Part Timers are going to all have to go find other work, thanks to this Union.
And as always, at least 50% of those newly hired full time Drivers from this last quarter are going to quit by the Summer and poor RTD will be left without the Part Time pool to fill the gaps like they did this year.

This Union is very anti-RTD, anti-Passenger/Customer and anti-worker!

Very discriminatory towards the Part Time Driver.

Yet they continue to steal the Part Time Driver's money and simply tell the Driver, "Hey you don't like it, leave!"

[shakes head] That's sad in this day and age [/shakes head]
Shame on you Amalgamated Transit Union 1001.

If I could afford the Billboard, I'd post one downtown for all to see - how discriminatory y'all are.