Call our local ATU to action! Fair seniority for layoffs!

Thursday, June 04, 2020

Dear Union Brothers and Sisters-
Community Transit has fallen on some tough financial times, and will be laying off 30 to 40 drivers.
As you know, it is written in the contract that Part Time employees will be laid off first, no matter how many years of service they have.
The petition that is being presented for you to sign is a request for OUR UNION to change the lay off language in the contract and put it to a vote by the membership. There have been discussions with Community Transit personnel to see if they would allow the Union to make changes mid contract to protect the Part Time Drivers. Community Transit would have no trouble allowing the language to be changed and protecting the Part Time drivers. The Union has full control of the seniority list, and they can make changes to the language with membership approval.
The Union and the Company will meet 10 days prior to layoff to discuss how the layoff will be done. If we can get the petition signed and it represents a majority of drivers, we may be able to change this. We have been asking for ballots to be sent out, absentee. I have heard the Union feels it would take several meetings and discussions before this can be put to a vote. I don’t understand their logic about this.
Simply put, we want the layoffs to be by date of hire. I do not see the complexity in that .

In no way would this affect the Full Time Drivers Seniority. The Part Time Drivers are not asking to combine the full time and part time lists, we are not asking to be allowed to change our status from Part Time to Full time and bumping drivers.
Putting it plain and simple, make the layoff procedure by DATE OF HIRE. Many of us came from a Union background, and I have heard many say, “ I have never heard of drivers with more seniority getting laid off, and allowing employees with less seniority to remain employed.”
The argument has been that the layoff procedure has been inherited by our current president. Our current president has held office for several terms and has been asked to change the layoff procedures, but chooses to ignore our requests. Misinformation has been spread to make Full Time drivers think this is about merging the list and bumping the seniority of the Full Time drivers. This petition is not about that. Not at all.

Please put yourselves in our shoes. If you had 20 plus years of service, would you think it is fair to be laid off while those with less than 5 years remain employed? If you can answer yes to this question, I would really like to have a conversation with you.