ATU Local 1001 - RTD Contract Update

Sorry, there is no update on the contact arbitration between Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1001 and Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD) - local President Holman Carter insisted on secrecy.

Given that fares account for less than 20% of the RTD operating budget and that the other 80%+ comes from the public trough federal/state funding and an RTD District sales tax, one might think the public, who pays for the system, has a right to be kept informed of how their money is spent but Holman doesn't see it that way.

A little background: the contract between RTD public employees and RTD expired February 28th, 2009. ATU Local 1001 notified the state they intended to strike (they actually didn't, as Holman admitted) and the state barred a strike and ordered binding arbitration, the actual goal.

It's no surprise that Holman and the boys insist on secrecy, cock-a-roachs scramble when you shine a light on them!

I'm still asking about the 2008 $120k ATU Local 1001 donation to Protect Colorado's Future (formed only to defeat 3 "anti-union" ballot proposals) that I, as a member of ATU Local 1001, was never given the opportunity to fight against. Democracy be damned, do what you want with the members money and tell them what a great job you're doing after the fact.

I still have to chuckle at the irony of the situation; ATU Local 1001, representing only the RTD public employees, had no Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) reporting requirements until they recruited the First Transit (my employer at the time) private employees in July, 2007.

Had the boys not gotten greedy and just left me alone, it would have been a win-win for both of us - I'd still have two years of dues in my pocket and the union would still be free to stay in the dark and leave little cock-a-roach pellets laying around for the members.

Be careful what you wish for - your wish may come true.

Critical and Endangered Union Pension Funds

In the wake of the Indiana State Teachers Fund Insurance Trust failure, it's time to turn our attention to the union/employer management of many multi-employer pension funds; pensions that thousands of union members are depending on for some security when they're no longer able to work (or perish the thought, perhaps even "early" retirement).

Department of Labor regulations require that the trust managers report "endangered" (assets below 80% of liabilities) and "critical" (assets below 65% of liabilities) and the stats are scary at best:

Kevin Mooney, reporting for the washingtonexaminer.com informs us that, according to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, "the average union has resources to cover only 62% of what is owed to participants" and "less than 1 in 160 workers is covered by union pension with required assets".

Perhaps Mr. Mooney's article should be required reading for those members covered by the failing pension plans; he paints a very grim outlook and and it certainly doesn't look like President Obama, Labor Secretary Solis or the Congress are overly concerning with the members who could lose much of their earned retirement.

On a positive note for union members, please Google "Labor Union Pension Bailout". Many of the large unions are already begging for government bailouts and who knows, feeding at the public trough may be the answer. Obama certainly owes a large debt for his election - repayment is expected.

image courtesy of work-for-food.signgenerator.net

Indiana State Teachers Association Trust Fund Update

"No one receiving a check has missed a payment and because of this partnership, no one ever will," said ISTA President Nate Schnellenberger.

Rich Van Wyk: Eyewithness News June 8th,2009

It's an interesting story being reported but is it correct?

I believe it's correct to report "former ISTA president Nate Schnellenberger........" Ed Sullivan, NEA trustee is running the show these days and it's reported that his position is that there is no money. I don't think you can forgot that Mr. Schnellenberger was both the ISTA president and a director of the failed insurance trust.

Perhaps wthr.com incorrectly posted an old story and was quoting Mr. Schnellenberger before NEA put the local in trusteeship. We would hope that Mr. Schnellenberger, not Mr. Sullivan, is correct.

Good news: the story also reports that the thousands of teachers, covered by the health insurance arm of the trust, will continue to receive their health care benefits.

I have a personal observation. This story is almost a month old and seems to be little reported even in Indiana. My local newspaper, the Denver Post, has not covered it at all. The ISTA trust failure coupled with the Department of Labor Multi-employer Critical and Endangered Pension list (note: ISTA was not listed as critical or endangered) seems to be a problem could effect hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Americans.

This is one tiny blog and we can see a problem. Is this just Chicken Little running around "The sky is falling" or a serious problem that needs to be addressed? Where is the news coverage? Where is the Obama administration and Secretary Solis? Is Congress too busy working on the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act to notice pensions are endangered? Most importantly, where is Big Labor?

It's a union and American problem - Address the problem!

Indiana State Teachers Association Trust Fund Update

State teachers union vows to end disability payments

The 650 Indiana disabled teachers receiving disability from Indiana State Teachers Trust (ISTA) are in trouble!

journalgazette.net out of Ft. Wayne has reported that Trustee Ed Sullivan has sent a memo saying the trust could not meet it obligations and that the July payment would be the last.

Indiana State Insurance Commissioner Jim Atterholt is quoted:

"How are these 650 teachers from across the state who are currently on disability supposed to feed their families until the lawyers sort everything out years from now?" Atterholt asked. "The honorable thing for the NEA and ISTA to do is to continue to pay claims until they recover the money from the bad actors."

First Transit Employees Rights Blog echos Mr. Atterholt's feelings - The parent, National Education Association (NEA), ought to step up and guarantee that NO disabled teacher will miss a single payment.

I'm sure the lapdog politicians will understand if the envelope is a little short for a while - it's a good cause.

The news just keeps getting better!

The FOX 59 local news reports that ISTA plans to lay-off at least 35, perhaps more, of the unions 150 employees. Why not even less to the politicos and let the workers keep their jobs?They did nothing wrong!

Meyer, Suozzi, English and Klein

I am always honored when a large law firm visits the humble blog. Today's special guest:

Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein

coming in strong via an ISP out of Garden City, New York.

Just to show everyone I'm a nice, cooperative guy:

Tell me what unions, besides ATU 1181 you're interested in; I'll do a little research and let you know. That should save some time and you will not ever have to come back.

ATU Local 1001 - Who Are you Lying to Now?

The devil is in the details but first:

A warm hello to my buddies at ATU Local 1001 in Westminster, Colorado. Wishing Holman, Howard, Julio, Rudy, and especially lawyer Jones, a wonderful day!

I suspect that I'm just not smart enough to understand but perhaps one of the officers or members can explain it to me (or perhaps the members would like an explanation).

I look at the Local 1001 2008 LM-2 and I can see that the union had 2,163 members and that the members paid $1,002,649 in dues for 2008. I trust and believe the LM-2 (no union has ever lied) and understand so far.

I get confused when I look at the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment Order, dated February 24th, 2009 and see the following under Finding of Fact:

3. RTD employs approximately 2,520 employees, about 1,907 of which are represented by ATU

Bear with me, here's part of my confusion: If 1,907 of the members are RTD employees, that only leaves 256 employed by First Transit, Laidlaw and Veolia. The numbers seem a little odd but I'm getting old and perhaps senile - that could be the answer.

It really blows my mind when I go to the Local 1001 "official" website and learn:

It (RTD) has more than 1,000 buses in its fleet, leasing about 400 to private carriers, and in 2006 had an annual operating budget of $393,228,967.

400 buses and 256 drivers? Geez, had I known that, I'd have asked to take mine home every night and not had to drive into Longmont every day. Think how much money and wear & tear I'd have saved.

Finally, I decided to check with RTD and came up with another set of numbers:

Buses owned and operated by RTD - 621

Owned by RTD & leased to subcontractors - 439

Budgeted number of employees - 2526

Salaried employees - 623

Represented employees - 1903 (amazing, numbers that match!)

Subcontractor employees - 1,593

To be fair, not all of those 1,593 are represented by ATU Local 1001 but the number is a hell of a lot higher than the 256 claimed on the 2008 LM-2. I'd suggest the "I'm Stupid & Incompetent" defense if this issue ever comes up (as it may, refer to LM-2 False or Misleading statements), it's worked before.

Apatosaurus & Big Labor

DATELINE: 150 million years ago

Apatosaurus (a.k.a. Brontsaurus) Goes Extinct

DATELINE: Today

Big Labor On Verge Of Bankruptcy - May Follow Apatosaurus

The top story in the June 11th Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal:

Unions in Debt

Big labor has big financial problems it wants to keep quiet.

Andy Stern even bragged about spending over $60 million over to elect (buy) Barack Obama. WSJ tells us:

The SEIU and AFL-CIO have been spending so much on politics that they're going deeply into debt.

And? We already know that, what's new?

Tom Buffenbarger, President of the International Machinist and Aerospace Workers and an AFL-CIO finance committee member warns:

"If we are not careful, insolvency may be right around the corner,"

I'm sorry Tom, is that the good news or the bad news?

Mother Nature decided she'd had enough of Apatosaurus and the species vanished almost overnight. Another dinosaur, the labor union, has been sewing the seeds of it's own destruction for quite a while and may be poised to follow Apatosaurus. Watch out boys, Mother Nature is a BITCH!

dino courtesy of Heathers Animations

Indiana Teachers Are Asking: HOW, WHO and WHY?.

It's a sad story and it's hard to feel anything but sympathy for the affected teachers in Indiana. I've traveled a bit and as a group, it's difficult to find a nicer, more honest and harder working people than those from the Midwest. Add to that, these are professional teachers and regardless of my disagreements with the way our kids are taught, I don't question the good intentions and dedication of the majority of teachers.

I'm not privy to many of the details of regarding the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) Insurance Trust $60 or $70 million dollar shortage but regardless of how nice and well-intentioned the directors of ISTA were, they are still responsible for a catastrophe that will affect many people for many years. Sorry, you wanted the job and you were responsible. To the members: Sorry, we're all adults and you were the members. At some point, we have to say CAVEAT EMPTOR.

The HOW & WHY of the debacle are pretty simple: it's a lot of money and not everyone in the world believes in the old fashioned Midwest values of honesty and hard work. When you give you money to crooks, you lose it.

I have read nothing that would lead me to believe that anyone with ISTA was dishonest or did anything illegal; instead it seems to be their very values that betrayed them - there are people who will look you in the eye, shake your hand, give their word and stab you in the back! If you're too naive to understand that simple fact, shame on you.

The word I hear is that it's likely member dues will have to be raised in order to recover from the shortage. What the member chooses is an individual decision and it is a fact, the individual member will have little or no say for up to 18 months, the maximum length of time ISTA can remain in National Education Association (NEA) trusteeship. I have no doubt that in time, the union will recover and hopefully it will be no more that a (very) expensive lesson.

The WHO is a very sad story. I have no doubt that every ISTA official responsible was a dedicated educator who's biggest mistake was to trust someone else to take care of the members money and the members trusted their officials. The hard lesson learned is that EVERY MEMBER has an obligation to watch every penny and not sit back and leave the job to someone else. While we sympathize we must still acknowledge those responsible:

	Nathan Schnellenberger, President Jasper A high school science teacher from Forest Park Jr-Sr High School, Nate has been an Indiana public school teacher for 33 years. Before becoming ISTA President, he served as ISTA treasurer and as a member of the NEA Board of Directors. Nate and his wife Beth have two children.	317.263.3302 nschnellenberger(at)ista(hyphen)in(dot)org
	Teresa Meredith, Vice President Shelbyville A kindergarten teacher at Thomas A. Hendricks Elementary, Teresa has taught in Indiana's public schools for 18 years. She also serves as chair of the Indiana Foundation for the Improvement of Education (IFIE). Teresa and her husband Chris have four children.	317.263.3309 tmeredith(at)ista(hyphen)in(dot)org
	Kathy Parks, Treasurer Haubstadt A language arts teacher at Gibson Southern High School with 38 years in the classroom, Kathy has long been involved in ISTA. Before her election as ISTA treasurer, she served on the NEA Board of Directors. Currently she serves as chair of the NEA Women's Issues Committee.	317.263.3323 kparks(at)ista(hyphen)in(dot)org

There may even be an actual bad guy in a black hat. From the Indiana Economic Digest, May 26th, 2009:

ISTA trust lacked expertise

"But the lack of investment expertise on its board left the ISTA trust especially vulnerable to the volatile markets and the rapid-fire trades of the trust's broker, Morgan Stanley's David Karandos. During a nine-month stretch last year, Karandos made 4,000 trades involving the ISTA trust's investments."

It's a good read that I recommend for all union members

(& investors of any ilk). My opinion: Mr. Karandos is scum and it's time to revive an old Midwest tradition: tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail!

Indiana State Teachers Association Trust Fund

The once powerful Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) flew under the radar for a couple of weeks after "shortages" were discovered in the disabled teachers and health insurance trust fund. I believe The Chairman, ole blue eyes himself, once did a song with an apropos line "That's life, that's what all the people say. You're riding high in April, shot down in May

Our sincerest sympathies go out to the affected teachers. You deserved much better than this!

The union started to unravel around the 20th of May and the President, Nathan

Schnellenberger, ask the National Education Association (NEA), ISTA's parent union, to place trustees in charge. NEA agreed and Ed Sullivan, a long-time NEA boss is running the show in Indiana. Former president Schnellenger sent the following email to ISTA members:

ISTA Members,

As you may know, the ISTA Insurance Trust has recently experienced a number of severe difficulties. Additionally, like most organizations in this economic downturn, ISTA itself is experiencing some financial distress that must be addressed.

In a response to both of these situations, Saturday afternoon the ISTA Board of Directors met in a special session and unanimously agreed to ask NEA to institute a Trusteeship over ISTA. The purpose of this trusteeship is to assure ISTA’s current financial viability and continued long-term success.

In response, NEA agreed to appoint a trustee. His name is Edward Sullivan. Ed has had a distinguished career in the NEA family. Until his retirement last year, Ed served for 24 years as the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Education Association. I have met with Ed, and I am confident that he will provide sound leadership as we work to resolve the financial issues that confront us.

Ed will have complete authority over the operations of ISTA. As he explained it to me, his mission will be keeping the regular business operations of ISTA running smoothly while exploring various financial options for the ISTA and instituting whatever corrections are needed.

Your elected officers and the Board of Directors will give Ed full support and cooperation for the duration of the trusteeship and ask that you do the same.

Mike Antonucci, writing for the blog Intercept, broke the story on May 21st and reports that there were warning signs as early as 2006-2007 and that ISTA had already had a reported deficit of some $4.2 million prior to it's trust problems. It's an interesting read and has links to many of the union's financial documents, saving me the time and energy necessary to dig them out. If I may take the liberty - "Great work, Mike!"

The problems now being reported are catastrophic; the trust is bankrupt, with $86 million in liabilities and only $19 million in assets as reported June 8th by The National Review Online (NRO). The FBI, along with Indiana officials, has started an investigation and the NEA has promised full cooperation and disclosure.

The story is breaking as I write this and First Transit Employee Rights blog will report the facts as we learn them.

"I'm Stupid & Incompetent" Defense

I'll recap the story. I was fired from my job at First Transit, Longmont, Colorado back in January, not because I was a disciplinary problem (model employee) but because I had the audacity to get very ill - $300,000 in medical bills had nothing to do with the decision.

I was a member, in good standing, of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001 and paid my dues for over two years, even when I was out sick with no paycheck. I was a great little union soldier, although I will admit that when the organizers came around with their hands out, I always asked what they were going to do for me and refused to donate a penny beyond my dues.

After I was fired, I figured as long as I was paying dues, I might as well talk to the boys down at the union hall. Surprise, I was told "If the company fired you, they must have had a legal reason and what do you think we can do about it?" Well, duh - represent me, isn't that what I paid for?

It's another story but I contend that the company violated my Collective Bargaining Agreement, FMLA and possibly some EEOC laws. That will all be decided at some time in the future but the point is, my union DID WORSE THAN NOTHING, they first lied to me and then scoffed at my claims for reasons I still haven't determined. Perhaps old white guys just are unimportant.

I suppose I could have let it drop and started after the company but here's how I see it. The company paid me for the privilege of screwing me - I had to pay the union! When I have to prostitute myself at least let's get the transactions correct.

I learned about "Failure To Represent" as defined under the National Labor Relations Act and filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. I already knew I had little chance of success, the standards a union must meet are very low, and I wanted nothing from the union - it's the members money.

As expected, the regional board eventually met and decided that the union's conduct did not rise to the level necessary to proceed with a NLRB action. Although I could have appealed, I decided to withdraw my complaint at that point. I believe that the NLRB treated me fairly given the constraints they operate under.

I wasn't allowed to see the union's answers (it was a thick file :-) to my complaint (it's private until an action is filed) but in my dealing with the union, it's obvious they used the "Stupid and Incompetent" defense, "How can you possibly expect us to understand when a member is illegally terminated? Investigate and see if the member's complaint has merit? Naw - too busy drinking coffee, scratching my butt and playing on the internet" It's interesting to note that the union attorney, lawyer Jones, was not even consulted until AFTER I had filed a complaint with the NLRB but I suppose if you're going to use "Stupid and Incompetent", you've got to go all the way.

It's a shame that "Stupid and Incompetent" are legitimate defenses to "Failure to Represent" but it is what it is.