The Rooms We Filled
Washington. Minneapolis. Niagara Falls. Winnipeg. Windsor. Five cities, and in every one were rooms full of ATU members who found a way to be there.
I want to tell you what I saw in those rooms, because I keep hearing that workers don’t care and that the union era is behind us. I have a hard time squaring that with the last three months.
They Show Up
In June, more than 170 Local officers came to Washington, DC, for our ATU U.S. Legislative Conference. I asked the room to look around, because people had flown in, driven in, taken the train, taken the bus. When ATU members need to be somewhere, we show up.
Those leaders rallied on the steps of the Capitol and walked into over 200 congressional offices in a single day, advocating for transit funding, worker safety, AI, and our demand that autonomous vehicles keep an operator on board. Congress hears all day from lobbyists who have never driven a bus or fixed a rail car. They don’t hear enough from us. That’s our advantage, and this year we used it.
Not One More
A few days later, the AFL-CIO Convention was in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was honored to be re-elected as an AFL-CIO Vice President, but the moment I carried with me came from Local 241-Chicago, IL, President/Business Agent Keith Hill, who sat on a workplace violence panel and pointed to the new Illinois law requiring protective barriers on buses and transit ambassadors on the system.
That law exists because our Union fought for it. Later, with our full delegation behind me, I spoke in support of Resolution 8, “We Want Healthy Lives and Safe Workplaces.” Our members are assaulted on the job every single day. We’ve lost members to violence. Resolution 8 passed. The entire labor movement is now on record. Not One More.
Forty Conferences In
In Niagara Falls, Ontario, the ATU International Women’s Caucus held its 40th conference. Forty years ago, a small group of women decided this Union needed a space built by them, for them, and did not wait for permission. I told that room that the world outside those walls is not friendly to working women right now. Rights are being dismantled. Protections are being stripped away. But whoever is doing the dismantling has never met ATU women. Forty conferences in, you’re sharper and stronger than you’ve ever been. Congratulations to our Award honorees and to the officers sworn in to carry the Caucus forward.
One Union, One Fight
Our Northwest Conference Board met in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and that was a deliberate choice. In 1919, transit workers there walked off the streetcars and helped shut the city down for six weeks, part of a general strike that forced a continent to reckon with the right to bargain. The threats look different now. Autonomous vehicles and AI coming for good union jobs. Violence against our members. A funding crisis that could devastate systems across the country. And at the same time, we’re organizing, we’re bargaining, and we’re winning. Local 1001-Denver, CO, secured a voting seat on the RTD board, so transit workers now sit in a room where decisions used to get made without us.
In Windsor, Ontario, the ATU CAN-AM 2026 brought members together from both sides of the border. Five Locals have gone on strike or authorized a strike since we last met. New contracts landed from Texas to Alberta to Ontario, and hundreds of new members joined this family, from school bus workers in Hamilton to paratransit workers in Calgary. Chicago Locals helped secure $1.5 billion in transit funding. The BUILD America 250 Act passed the U.S. House. Bill C-14 expanded protections for transit workers across Canada.
On the Ground
Closer to the ground, the wins kept coming. Locals 107- Hamilton, ON, 583-Calgary, AB, and 1328-Raleigh, NC, brought new workers into our ATU family, and Local 113- Toronto, ON, won a momentous fight over drug testing.
And Local 1208-Jackson, MS, members walked out at JTRAN rather than accept terms no member of this union should have to accept and won a strong contract. I was on the line with them on the first day of that strike. I have walked a lot of picket lines, and the first day tells you everything, because that’s the day it stops being a vote and starts being a household decision. Nobody standing out there was confused about what it would cost them. They were out there anyway for 39 days until they got what they deserved.
The Stakes This Fall
Every one of those wins came because someone was willing to fight for it, in a statehouse, in Congress, in Parliament, on a picket line. None of it happens by accident, and none of it is guaranteed to last. This November, transit funding, worker safety, and whether autonomous vehicles keep a human in the driver’s seat will all be decided by who holds power in the U.S. Congress. In October, there are municipal elections in many Canadian Provinces. We cannot afford to sit out these elections. Register. Vote. Get your coworkers, friends, and family to do the same.
Keep Showing Up
Our Union was built by people who decided their coworkers deserved better and then did something about it. No title required. No permission required. That’s what I saw this quarter, in five cities and in every garage, shop, and yard where a member is doing that same work.
Keep showing up. I’ll keep showing up with you.