FPE/AFT helps form transportation watchdog

The FPE/AFT and its affiliate, the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF), are among the 25 unions and associations that recently formed the National Association of State Highway and Transportation Unions (NASHTU). The coalition will assist unions representing highway engineers and other departments of transportation professionals in their lobbying efforts. The coalition also will serve as a clearinghouse for data on design-build issues, temporary employees and private toll road construction.

"Our transportation dollars must go into roads and highways to improve the quality of our transportation system--not line the pockets of private consultants," says AFT vice president Jim McGarvey, chair of the FPE/AFT program and policy council and vice president of the FPE/AFT-affiliated Montana Education Association-Montana Federation of Teachers (MEA-MFT). "NASHTU will help to ensure that public dollars are spent wisely and on projects that ease congestion, protect public safety and best serve the taxpayers' needs."

One of NASHTU's first initiatives, currently in progress, is a report focusing on the many failures of contracting out the engineering, technical work and other services customarily provided by public employees within state and local transportation departments.

NASHTU coalition members represent more than 100,000 state and locally employed transportation engineers, technical workers and transportation-related public employees.