JH 72 Been Busy!

JH 72 Been Busy!

Sorry all, but the Joe Hill Team has been busy with other things, of late. In case you haven't noticed, there is a national election underway. Recently the Joe Hill Email address received a tasteless attack on the wife of John Kerry by a Republican Union member. All I have to say about that is, be sure to vote and encourage everyone to vote.

So mediation is pending before our bargainers. I hope that the bargaining team will take some of the information to the mediation sessions from the Joe Hill Project. LTD has the resources, and does not need to be pressing the issues that it is. We have seen nothing but waste and pursuit of a hugely expensive capital agenda for a very small, or no gain in productivity. As Joe has said before, the BRT is the beast, and it is going to slowly eat LTD from the inside out.

LTD is going to once again dash headlong in to the new technology issue by buying hybrid electric technology from New Flyer. New Flyer might be a better choice in the long run, but it looks like we are at the head of the line. And man, are they expensive. The amortized cost for each ride by BRT could fund regular service in a greatly expanded service.

You will know the success potential of the mediation if LTD makes any concessions on it's hard as stone positions. Word has it that they may have even appeared, at least to us, as having made worse proposals in the last meeting. This, you need to know, is contrary to the Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act. It is called regressive bargaining.

Mediation is a process of structured concessions. The role of the mediator is to call each of the parties on whether the position being articulated is realistic and fair. They have no power to impose anything, and their efforts are completely off the record. Typically a good mediation is filled full of "what if" proposals, and cajoling by the mediator to move the parties to settlement.

But, if one of the parties is Jabba the Hutt and is not moved very easily, then mediation is just a consumer of time. With every day that we move away from the expiration of the contract, the bigger the bill is to pay retroactively and less likely that LTD is willing to do it. Retro pay is usually one of the first things lost by workers, but why should it be in our case? LTD wasted millions on the Breeze, and the LTD share from local costs are more than enough to pay the retro pay. Why should we suffer for the mistakes made by management?

You see, Team LTD should mean that if we did not share in the decision we should not be subject to the consequences for the decision. ATU mediation team - tell LTD to get real.

In Solidarity,
Joe Hill


_______________________________________________
"The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end...there it is!"