Transportation workers share their good ideas

The AFT PSRP Department brought together transportation workers and union activists for a two-day task force meeting in February on transportation issues that dealt with such items as staff recruitment and retention, bus overcrowding, health and safety issues, public recognition and the threats posed by contracting out. The task force included AFT transportation leaders as well as guests from independent associations in Colorado, Oregon and West Virginia that also represent transportation workers.

In addition to sharing ideas among themselves, the group also heard from outside presenters, including a congressional staffer who deals with highway and transit issues, a representative from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and someone from the AFL-CIO’s transportation trades department. A collection of the AFT’s own experts in health and safety, legislation, privatization, research and educational issues also shared with the group some of the resources that the national union has available to help its PSRPs who work in these areas. The task force members came up with a series of recommendations related to the issues mentioned above that will be the topic of discussion and action at a future PSRP program and policy council meeting.

The transportation workers task force is the fifth such meeting sponsored by the AFT PSRP department to bring together leaders and activists from around the country who do similar jobs in schools and colleges.

A full-court press by the AFT and others fell two votes shy of blocking the latest federal budget law—a five-year budget reconciliation plan that punishes working families, rewards powerful lobbyists and greases the path for more reckless tax cuts.

The budget deal “punishes low- and middle-income college students, poor children, the elderly and the disabled, yet provides handouts to the healthcare industry and another round of tax cuts that will bloat the already out-of-control deficit,” AFT president Edward J. McElroy says.

The law slashes more than $39 billion in domestic programs, with some of the most devastating cuts reserved for college students and low-income Americans needing healthcare. Almost $12 billion was axed from student loans—the largest cut in the history of these programs. The new law will result in an average increase of $5,800 in the interest students pay on loans.

The measure also reduces Medicaid by $10.5 billion over five years. As a result, low-income Americans who rely on Medicaid will see higher co-payments and reduced assistance for prescription drugs. The law also means higher premiums for seniors who rely on Medicare.

Since the passage of two school bonds in recent years, the San Antonio Independent School District has been building new schools and expanding existing schools. What the district hasn’t done during the building boom is add new custodians.

The result has been “impossible workloads” for custodians, according to the AFT-affiliated San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel, which has filed a class-action lawsuit on the custodians’ behalf.

“Why should we subject our custodians, some of the hardest-working men and women in our district, to subpar working conditions?” asks Rachel Martinez, a PSRP leader who is the Alliance’s executive vice president. “Why are they forced to do more with little manpower.”

James Aguilar, head custodian at Edison High School, says that his campus has grown 80,000 square feet in the last five years but the number of custodians is the same. “They decide to build these huge, beautiful complexes, but someone forgot to put maintenance in them,” he says.

The union has attempted to resolve the issue through the consultation process with management for three years, but the lack of progress prompted the lawsuit. The union wants the district to hire more custodians—about 90 more are needed on top of the current 500—and to create a staffing formula that gives custodians a reasonable workload.