STRIKES * USA - CTA bus drivers union weighs strike to protest layoffs

CTA bus drivers union weighs strike to protest layoffs

Chicago,ILL,USA -Chicago Now, by Kevin O'Neil -4 Nov 2009: -- The CTA bus drivers union is considering a strike to protest planned layoffs of about 1,800 members of the Local 241 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, according to a CBS2 Chicago report... The union president, Darrell Jefferson, goes on to insist the CTA's budget deficit is actually $500 million, not the $300 million cited by the CTA. But the union will continue to resist any givebacks, including furlough days... Furthermore, Jefferson says: "Metropolitan Transit Act says, in section 28, that management and exempt people should make up only 3 percent of the total number of employees. We estimate CTA being somewhere like 15 to 18 percent. Laying off people and you're still gonna be heavy in management, I think you're asking for a war more than a layoff"... So, we'll have to see how this war plays out...(Photo from photobucket: scattered frog Chicago Marshall Field Protest BusDriver)

* Pennsilvania - Fire worsens 2nd day of Philly transit strike

Philadelphia,PENN,USA -AP, by PATRICK WALTERS & Martha Raffaele& & Ron Todt -5 Nov 2009: -- Commuters biked, walked, juggled carpool schedules and hitched rides as the city's transit system ground to a near halt for a second day Wednesday, a rush worsened when a regional rail train caught fire... The strike also affects buses that serve the suburbs in Bucks, Montgomery and Chester counties... The strike forced some employers to scramble, too... Cisco Navarro, 41, a part-time night clerk at the UPS distribution facility in South Philadelphia, got to work via a patchwork bus system that UPS set up by hiring bus companies... His biggest challenge, he said, was getting the buses to stop. Employees have to show company IDs to get on the bus, but drivers can't tell who is a UPS employee from a distance — and sometimes, he said, they don't stop..."You're waving your arms," he said, adding that he has now borrowed a UPS hat. "I need to bring cheerleaders"... (Photo by Matt Rourke/AP : Stranded commuters are loaded on buses near the scene of a train fire in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009)