STRIKE DEAL STRIKES OUT

by Chuck Campbell

Is public transportation necessary? For many people, with or without disabilities, the need is obvious. “I can’t drive because of my disability. Public transportation is all I got,” the Pioneer Press’ Hank Shaw quoted Courage Center resident Zach Johnson. Shaw’s article also quoted John Tschida, of Courage Center, saying he knows one nursing assistant who now spends $40 a day on cab fare. Darlene Scott of Phoenix Residence says about half of their employees take the bus to work, and some are now missing shifts as a result of the strike.

Brandt Williams’ March 11 Minnesota Public Radio article noted one minimum wage worker who grosses $260 a week must now spend $150 a week commuting.

David Harris’ disabilities prevent him from driving, but not from articulating how the strike has affected his life. “I’ve been walking to the bank since the buses stopped running; it’s an hour and 55 minute round trip.” While Harris has arranged for members of his church to drive him home from school, he bristles at having to beg rides. Harris treasures his independence—his ability to do for himself. The church members who have been providing transportation sometimes have other obligations, and are not always available. “On March 15^th, I didn’t have a ride home. I spent two hours and 15 minutes walking home, and had blisters on my feet for the next four days,” said Harris.

The transit strike has made the need for public transportation painfully obvious for many, but not all, metro area residents.

“Transit doesn’t appear to serve modern transportation needs particularly well. And why is that a shock? Mass transit is an industrial era, mass production solution, and we are living in an information age, mass customization era. It’s time to rethink how we provide mobility for people into the 21^st Century,” David Strom, president of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, writes on that organization’s web site.

“Trains and busses are really 19^th and early 20^th Century ideas. It’s time to focus on 21^st century solutions that provide customized service to people.”

Strom doesn’t mention what those solutions might be, but that hasn’t stopped his organization from influencing the debate, according to the StarTribune’s Laurie Blake. “Also playing a role is the Minnesota Taxpayers League, an aggressive voice for reducing government spending, which has strengthened the standoff by pressing legislators not to raise taxes for any reason, including transportation. Two days after the bus drivers went on strike, the league questioned the need for busses at all.”

The Taxpayers League web site includes Strom’s “Transit Fact of the Day.” On March 16^th he wrote, “U.S. cities [are] not made well for transit,” arguing that “Transit requires urban density to work well—and American cities are not dense.” On the 17^th, Strom wrote, “Transit’s share of travel [is] declining nearly everywhere,” stating, “Even in the most transit intensive communities in the world, the decline of transit as a preferred mode of transportation is stunning.”

The Taxpayers League is not alone in its opposition to transit funding, as Blake notes.

“The standoff comes down to this: Outstate legislators have no interest in raising taxes to pay for metro-area transit.  They want more money for roads. Legislators representing the urban core won’t back new funding for roads unless it’s part of a package that includes transit. Suburban legislators won’t back an increase in road funding unless the state formula for distributing money is adjusted to benefit the metro area, a move opposed by outstate legislators,” wrote Blake.

Insufficient funds

“The major issue is how to cope with the soaring pricetag for health benefits. Metro Transit’s health care costs increased 19 percent this year and will rise another 24 percent next year. No revenue source from taxpayers or customers can possibly grow at that rate,” reads the Met Council’s Public Transit web site.

“The union began its strike March 4^th after a long drawn-out period of fruitless negotiations with the Met Council backed by Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty and a legislature determined to place the burden of rising health care costs and decreasing subsidies on the backs of workers,” according to the World Socialist Web Site.

The staunchly pro-union web site article continues, “While the governor and his appointee, Met Council Chairman Peter Bell, claim to be ‘disappointed’ with the strike, the work stoppage has been largely provoked by their determined policy to slash transit funding. Since 2002 the legislature has cut funding by 18 percent and the route system has been reduced by 7 percent. Metro Transit’s figures show that compared to similar cities, the Minneapolis/St. Paul system brings in the highest per-passenger trip revenue while ranking second from the bottom in securing government subsidies. By limiting appropriations, and with no dedicated funding, the Met Council came into bargaining in a position to demand workers take their offer or strike.

“On wages, the council’s two-year contract proposal imposes a wage freeze in the first year with a miserly one percent increase in the second. On the issue of health care, the Met Council is proposing that workers—who pay $265 a month for family coverage under the expired contract—will have to pay $304 a month in the first year and $401 a month in the second year,” according to the World Socialist web Site.

The StarTribune’s Neal St. Anthony largely concurs. “Few from the working class or the executive class are willing to criticize bus drivers, whose pay tops out at $45,000. They already pay a fifth or more of their family health insurance costs and they appeared close to agreeing to a two-year deal for a one percent pay raise. In other words, they are not asking for the moon.

“Peter Bell, the Chairman of the Metropolitan Council ... has said the lean-running transit operation has no more to give. He wants union members to pay more of their health care premiums and start paying co-pays for doctor visits. That would mean a cost-shifting of $500 or more per year for many employees in the first year of a contract. Premiums for some plans are rising by nearly 20 percent annually,” wrote St. Anthony

Cost shifting sounds like yuppie-speak for what transit workers might accurately describe as a pay-cut. “I just want to maintain what I’ve got,” said striking worker Mark Thielen. Another issue is the Met Council’s desire to “reduce and ultimately phase out [health insurance] coverage for retired workers _,” according to StarTribune.com. “Health care is the crux of the issue,” said Thielen. Speaking of past contracts, Thielen said, “We didn’t take big raises, benefits are a better deal because they’re tax free.”

Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) 1005’s web site argues, “What is wrong with workers having an excellent medical plan to help them with the stressful work they do? We get injured, spit on, beat up, even stabbed.”

St. Anthony writes, “The drivers and other ATU workers point out that they are operating one of the most cost-efficient transit systems in the nation.”

That cost efficiency has been a victim of the strike, according to Shaw, “Part of the Metropolitan Council’s strike preparations last month included giving its bus service for disabled people about $200,000 to cope with increased demand by riders who had been taking regular Metro Transit busses. “The extra money seems to be helping—for now. Metro Mobility officials, advocates for disabled people and managers of disabled services say most clients have been able to get around, albeit a little slower.” He goes on to note: “Metro Mobility service is expensive. Riders pay between $2.25 and $3 a trip, and the average public subsidy is $21 per ride, according to the Met council.”

Heidi Myhre, who has long brown hair and walks with the aid of a Kinny stick, says Metro Mobility doesn’t accommodate her previously accustomed spontaneity. “When I get ideas, I want to go out and do it, now I have to wait four days for a ride through Metro Mobility. Since the strike, there’s nowhere to go and I’m stuck at home,”

Bell recently announced, “We’re launching a program that will reimburse private, nonprofit, social-service agencies for additional transportation services they provide to transit-dependent people.”

But the Minnesota Council of Non-Profits has recommended its members not apply for short-term grants to provide transportation during the strike. While acknowledging that, “Clients and members of nonprofit organizations are having serious travel problems as a result of the strike, including low and moderate income residents, people with impaired vision, and others that have relied on public transportation.”

The Council sites issues of liability and insurance coverage.

“Transportation services are expensive risks to insure, and many nonprofit organizations that use vans or buses have experienced serious problems in finding and placing their casualty and liability coverage for existing activities. Taking on additional public transit duties can be outside the scope of current insurance policies, and could put that coverage at risk.”

Without insurance coverage, non-profits would be legally prohibited from providing any transportation services. Another of the council’s concerns is public support.

“Accepting funds from the parties to the current contract dispute would unwisely insert nonprofit organizations into the middle of the conflict. This is likely to create ill will from the public that nonprofit organizations cannot afford because they rely on charitable contributions from the public.”

The StarTribune’s Paul Levy reports one striker’s idea for funding interim transit: “Gary Johnson, 52, a bus driver for 30 years, suggested that Metro Transit could donate more than $100,000 daily by contributing managers’ salaries. ‘The system’s not running, so they’re not needed,’ he said. ‘There’s 50 managers who are getting paid. To do what?’”

Managers’ pay is an issue for many striking workers. According to a spreadsheet titled “Managers Raises” provided by a striker at Metro Transit’s Cleveland Avenue facility, between 1999 and 2004, 46 managers received raises of between 21 and 49 percent, with most seeing increases of more than 30 percent. Meanwhile union workers’ pay increased just 11.5 percent over the same period. The striking worker pointed out that this understates the widening gulf between managers’ pay and that of workers because, “They made twice as much as us to begin with.” The implication being that percentage point raises for managers are, therefore, twice as much in raw dollars than for workers.

Governor Pawlenty expressed his concern in a live radio broadcast, as reported by the Austin Daily Herald’s Matt Meritt. “The people who are most impacted by this strike are, of course, the disabled or disadvantaged.”

But as the Sun’s Joe Kieser reports, the strike has affected caregivers as well. “It’s not just the people who actually ride the bus to get to work, a doctor’s appointment or to get around town who were affected when the Metro Transit bus drivers went on strike—it reached even further than that. When the staff at Opportunity Partners learned of the possible bus driver strike, there was a sense of uncertainty of how it’s clients would be able to get to work every day ... about 60 of the 1,200 Opportunity Partners’ clients rely on the Metro Transit bus drivers to get them to their jobs, the same jobs that many of them got with the help of Opportunity Partners.”

Having helped its largely developmentally disabled clientele to obtain employment, Opportunity Partners staff are going the extra mile to help them keep those jobs, Kiesser reportsn

“In all, about 24 Opportunity Partners’ staff members decided to help out and make sure the clients got to work each day.”

Kieser quoted Opportunity Partners communications manager, Julie Peters, “Obviously, the strain of picking clients up and dropping them off at work all around the Twin Cities area takes its toll on the organization because for hours a day it takes staff members away from the office and their daily tasks at work.”

John Rischmiller, who uses a wheelchair due to MS and cerebral palsy, has experienced days when his Personal Care Attendant (PCA) couldn’t get to his home because of the strike. “When your PCA can’t get to you, you plan your day differently,” said Rischmiller. With MS, Rischmiller has more energy in the mornings, so when his PCA can’t make it, he showers and does his laundry then. Rischmiller said when his PCA could get to him, and had a later client in the area, the PCA has asked if he can spend the intervening time at Rischmiller’s home, having no transportation to go elsewhere.

Thelen questioned the governor’s commitment to helping the disadvantaged. “We feel horrible about this strike. The drivers were willing to keep working under the old contract, but management wouldn’t allow that. They wanted to force their new terms on us. All of us feel bad. We were up for binding arbitration, but the Met Council wouldn’t go for that because they’d have lost. Our riders are our customers; we don’t want to make them walk, or leave them stranded.”

Striker John Hammel blamed Metro Transit’s rising medical insurance costs on a high ranking transit official’s marriage to a “big shot” at Health Partners saying, “They signed a five year contract with Health Partners that cost 4 times as much as it should have.” Hammel said managers pay less than $200 a month for their health insurance.

When a state mediator called for negotiations to resume March 22, Transit Commissioner Peter Bell sounded pessimistic. According to Fox 9 News, Bell stated, “I am concerned about expectations the media may be creating with respect to Monday’s mediation session and feel that must be addressed. While the Council remains willing to engage in discussions, I feel talks will not be productive unless and until the ATU recognizes the financial constraints we are working under.”

Some strikers have been critical of Bell. A Toni Randolph Minnesota Public Radio article titled “No end in sight to bus drivers’ strike,” features a picture of a March 18 strike rally at the state capitol where one worker carried a sign reading: “What is the difference between Peter Bell and God? God doesn’t think he’s Peter Bell.”

As expected, the talks failed to yield an agreement. For many of those who depend on transit this means either paying astronomical cab fares, or long walks and sore feet. For those who can’t walk or afford a cab, the strike amounts to house arrest. “I just sit at home most of the time,” said Richard A. Mathison. I feel like a second class citizen. People with disabilities depend on the bus, because we can't drive.”

“The gulf in the 20-day Metro Transit strike widened Monday night after the union offered a new contract proposal that the Metropolitan Council quickly rejected,” according to the StarTribune’s Terry Collins and Chao Xiong.

Log onto the World Wide Web for more information about the ATU strike.  Highlighted in this article were:

The Taxpayers League at http://www.taxpayersleague.org

The World Socialist Web Site at http://www.wsws.org

The Minneapolis Star Tribune online at http://www.startribune.com

The St. Paul Pioneer Press at http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress

The Amalgamated Transit Union, 1005 at http://www.atu.org

The Austin Daily Herald at http://www.austindailyherald.com