Rally to Defend ATU Local 1555 BART Workers And All Public Workers. Stop the Concessions a

Rally to Defend ATU Local 1555 BART Workers And All Public Workers. Stop the Concessions and Union Busting Now

Rally to Defend ATU Local 1555 BART Workers And All Public Workers. Stop the Concessions and Union Busting Now.
Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1555, BART Train Operators and Station Agents (plus others) are working hard to defend the existence of their union. The call by BART spokesman Linton Johnson and the press and media for the public to “confront” ATU 1555 members individually has resulted in BART workers being shot at by BBs and verbally harassed and attacked on the job by people who are buying this anti-worker propaganda.
On 8/14/09, ATU 1555 members voted down a contract proposal, by a 2 to 1 margin, in which 2/3 of the local’s over 800 members voted and then prepared to go on strike. This union destroying contract proposal was supported by the incompetent, inexperienced, unprepared, cowardly, betraying leadership of President/Business Agent Jesse Hunt, Vice President Colleen McCann and union lawyer/negotiator Vicky Chin. All 3 spoke at the contract vote to support the rotten contract proposal. 4 of the 10 other negotiating committee members opposed the 8/14/09 contract proposal. On this Tuesday, 8/25/09 (10AM, 1PM & 4PM)), ATU 1555 members are voting on essentially the same offer, again supported by the 3 “leading” usual suspects. This time, the negotiating committee members unanimously support the proposal.
The management side of the attack has been orchestrated by BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger, who made over $340,000 (plus a huge benefits package) last year, the anti-labor BART board of directors who voted unanimously to impose an union busting contract on ATU 1555, and by BART spokesman Linton Johnson and the press and media. Governor Schwarzenegger has supported this attack and the anti-labor hysteria, aimed against all BART workers, but also most public workers in California.
The governor is attacking SEIU 1000 state workers with imposed furloughs and is now aiming to destroy the public pensions of all those in the State Pension plans in California. In the Bay Area, Richmond United Teachers, face possible strike action along with the Oakland Education Association and many other workers in Northern California. The closure of the UAW NUMMI Toyota plant, in Fremont, is another attack on organized labor.
All 1.5 million public transportation and public workers need to come together to back each other and unite in action here in California. The working people of California must act to stop public workers from being pitted against other workers and to make these fights public actions.

Please support public workers by coming to this rally on: August 25th (Tuesday) 2009, 7:00 PM, Alameda Labor Temple, 8400 Enterprise (at Hegenberger)

Hear from: ATU 1555 BART Workers, Betty Olson-Jones - Oakland Education Association President, Charles Smith - AFSCME 444 Chief Shop Steward, Jack Heyman - ILWU Local 10 Executive Board Member, Diane Brown - UTR member and Progressive Teachers Caucus leader, ATU 192 AC Members of Transit Workers Action Caucus (TWAC), Allan Fisher, Past President AFT 2121 SF Community College

(Partial list) Sponsored by AFSCME 444, Transport Workers Solidarity Committee -http://www.transportworkers.org, United Public Workers For Action - http://www.upwa.info
Endorsed by ILWU Local 10, ILWU Local 34, UCB Student Worker Action Team SWAT