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Often the unsung heroes of transportation, maintenance workers, mechanics, cleaners, tire repairmen, service technicians, fuelers and many others, keep our cities, streets, and highways moving. Hard at work out of sight of most of the riding public, they are no less deserving of our respect and thanks as the operators who get us where we are going.
The ATU recognizes the need to not only laud these dedicated employees for their past acheivements, but to also make sure that they are trained to handle the challeges of 21st century technological advances. For this reason the ATU has established the Mechanics Working Group, in partnership with the TWU, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and the federally-funded Community Transportation Center (CTC), among others. Together we are moving forward to set up the right types of programs to ensure ATU members lead, not follow.
Starting with Pennsylvania’s Keystone Labor/Management Program, we have been able to use state and federal job training funds to set up programs for transit agencies both large and small. Teams of maintenance workers and managers sit together to analyze their jobs and develop the specific training modules to fill the “skill gap” among the workers. Similar programs are under development in California, New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Utah, among others.
It is an ATU mantra that there be, "No Testing without Training!" The ATU does not supprort mandatory testing, but we are preparing for any eventuality. Certification for maintenence employees may or may not be inevitable, but what is certain is that the ATU will fight tooth and nail for training as part of any certification program. The Mechanics Working Group is currently working with ASE as it shapes test questions and answers for certification in 12 areas of the mechanic's trade.
ATU is also out front on issues such as privatization of warranty work and health and safety issues such as the reducing exposure to diesel exhaust and asbestos brakes parts. We fight equally hard to make our presence felt in the barns as we do on the roads.
New Guide for Locals Facing Extended Warranty Challenges:
Responding to Extended Warranty Work
and Other Maintenance Subcontracting Challenges
Maintenance in the News
Member's Voices
Mike Pucik
Member, ATU Local 757, US Pacific/Rocky Mountain
Mike Pucik, a maintenance worker at TriMet, began serving as his local’s political coordinator in 2004 during the Presidential election cycle. “It was overwhelming at first, but it gets easier every year,”... >> Get the whole story
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