Reinforcing that the safety of our members on the job is priority one at the ATU, International President John Costa hosted a Safety Committee training for more than 100 members to provide our ATU Locals with successful strategies and tactics to set up safety committees.
“Our members are exposed to hazards like violence, poor equipment, dangerous chemicals or lack of training on a daily basis. Often these issues are a result of management ignoring our members’ concerns or making decisions without our input as frontline workers. We fought hard for these Safety Committees to ensure critical protections for our members and riders in both the U.S. and Canada,” said Costa. “APTA and some in Congress are trying to take away these Committees, we need to stop that. These Safety Committees allow us to hold our transit agencies accountable on safety issue. Thank you for your leadership and taking the time to take part in this invaluable training.”
ATU Government Affairs Director Jeff Rosenberg also spoke about APTA’s attempts to get rid of these Safety Committees and encouraged attendees to get their transit agencies to sign a letter against that move. The letter can be signed at https://bit.ly/Support-BusOperatorSafetyandSecurityAct
Conducted by ATU Health and Safety Director Andrew Falotico, Training and Education Administrator Russell Bateman, Health and Safety Coordinator Anna Byrd, and Associate General Counsel Laura Karr, the training covered campaigns and tactics that safety committees can use. Also discussed were legislative differences regarding safety committee requirements, work refusals, whistleblower protections, and safety reporting.