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Monday, May 18, 2009
ATU Local 382 and Contract NegotiationsContract negotiations between UTA and
ATU Local 382 will commence soon. Since ATU Local 382 previously negotiated a contract that pays Frontrunner commuter rail
engineers the lowest hourly wages in the nation we wonder what they will do this time. (And yes, ATU Local 382 and UTA, they
are engineers, not operators, as you so condescendingly call them.)
Without their captured union, UTA would
never have paid so little to their commuter rail engineers. How can I make this statement? Because UTA would have worried
that a real union would stand up to them and actually represent the rail workers. Without ATU Local 382, UTA would have been
forced to pay wages closer to the prevailing wage for locomotive engineers. ATU Local 382 neither demands that UTA train them
adequately nor do they require that UTA pay wages that reflect the additional training required to be a locomotive engineer.
ATU Local 382 won't even stand up to UTA and demand that they be called what they are-engineers. It is a simple concept. A
worker joins a union because the union is supposed to try to negotiate higher wages and better working conditions. We do not
need a union to negotiate lower wages. It is a concept that ATU Local 382 does not understand.
Recently,
I have had a couple of interesting encounters with UTA employees concerning ATU Local 382. One employee told me that a member
of ATU Local 382 was reporting that Frontrunner engineers make about $70,000 per year. This was stunning to me. I work at
TRAX and I make the same wage as Frontrunner engineers. (Remember, both Frontrunner engineers and TRAX operators make the
same hourly wage as bus drivers. We are not compensated at all for additional railroad skills. We are bus drivers in trains.)
I worked a lot of overtime last year and made nowhere near $70,000. In fact, I wonder if it is even possible. Frontrunner
does not run on Sunday as TRAX does so the ability to earn overtime on that day does not exist for Frontrunner engineers.
In any case, a Frontrunner engineer that I spoke to about this was as stunned as I was and assured me that he too, had worked
lots of overtime as Frontrunner prepared to open last year but made far less than the $70,000 that the union member was asserting.
I also spoke to a bus driver in their lounge last week. In our conversation he stated that TRAX operators make a higher wage
and have better benefits than the bus drivers. Once again, I was dumbfounded. I told him that my wages were exactly the same
as his and that neither the Frontrunner engineers nor the TRAX operators are paid a penny for their railroad skills. Then
it was his turn to be dumbfounded. He asked me what incentive there was to go to UTA's rail services. Well, none really, unless
you enjoy taking more responsibility for no compensation. In the case of Frontrunner engineers, they risk being cited by the
Federal Railroad Administration if they make a mistake. The FRA has the ability to impose very severe penalties on engineers
and rail employees that violate their regulations. But ATU Local 382 does not recognize their responsibilities and allows
UTA to pay the lowest wages in the nation. My point here is that while ATU Local 382 does nothing to force UTA to pay TRAX
operators and Frontrunner engineers wages that reflect additional training and responsibilities, they want everyone to think
they do. For this, union members pay them over $45.00 each month. Of course, now that everyone knows that UTA is broke, there
is little likelihood that there will be wage increases, even for Frontrunner engineers. This is what passes for a union at
UTA. I invite Rod Dunn, president of ATU Local 382 to respond. He can write us an email or he is free to call. We are in the
book, Rod!
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that you agree in whole, or in part, then you should consider signing on. There will be no dues or financial obligation. The
only thing we would ask is that you be honest about your intentions. It is the goal of this web site to correct the deficiency
in proper union representation for bargaining unit employees of the Utah Transit Authority.
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This web-site will be edited by me: Michael Carper, also sometimes known as 318, (my radio
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