We reported that Russ Evans, a bus driver in Bend, Ore., was fired last month shortly after testifying in support of bills that would restore workers’ freedom to choose a union.
Now comes word from the Oregon AFL-CIO that Evans has been rehired and starts work today. This good news comes on the heels of the announcement by Evans’ employer, Paratransit, the contractor for Bend Area Transit (BAT), that it is dropping its challenge of the workers’ decision to join a union.
About four months ago, BAT workers voted to join Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, but Paratransit challenged the election and appealed a National Labor Relations Board hearing officer’s judgment in favor of the workers joining the ATU. Now that Paratransit’s challenge and appeal have been dropped, the workers are looking forward to negotiating a contract.
As bus driver Pam Shon told the Bend Bulletin:
It means a battle won, and it means we’ll finally have a fair process for a contract.
The Bend victory is the latest in a series of wins for ATU. Four months ago, Charles Lester, ATU’s first-ever organizing director, vowed to put to work in his union the model for organizing presented at the 2006 AFL-CIO Organizing Summit.
Since then, more than 500 transit drivers and office employees in three states can bargain for better wages after becoming ATU members. Hundreds more drivers are voting in the next few weeks on whether to better their lives by joining a union.
Recently, drivers for the Cambry (Ore.) Area Transit voted by a two-to-one margin to join Local 757. Today, a group of drivers outside Portland, Ore., is voting on whether to join ATU. And school bus drivers in Allentown, Pa., will vote on Friday.
Lester says the series of wins is “infectious.”
Everyone wants to get involved. This shows how much the culture is changing at ATU.
And there’s more to come. At the end of April, more than 60 ATU activists from three locals in Oregon took a three-day training course given by the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute (OI) to gain the necessary skills and tools to help workers in their areas gain a voice at work.
The OI is a highly selective program designed to recruit and train a new generation of union organizers. Three retirees attended the training and pledged to recruit other retirees to volunteer to help workers seeking to form unions.
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