Amalgamated Transit Union

Infobox Union
name= ATU
country= United States, Canada
affiliation= AFL-CIO, CLC
members= 185,000 (2008)
full_name= Amalgamated Transit Union
native_name=


founded= 1892
current=
head=
dissolved_date=
dissolved_state=
merged_into=
office= Washington, DC
people= Warren S. George, president
website= [http://www.atu.org/ www.atu.org]
footnotes=

The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) is a labor union in the United States and Canada, representing workers in the transit system and other industries. The ATU was founded as the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees in 1892, and today has more than 185,000 members in more than 300 local unions in 46 states and 9 provinces. The ATU includes bus, subway, light rail and ferry operators, clerks, baggage handlers, mechanics and others in the urban transit, over-the-road and school bus industries, as well as paratransit, emergency medical, clerical and municipal workers.

Activities

In addition to membership service, the ATU is actively engaged in the political arena, advocating for such causes as increased transit funding, energy independence, and the maintenance of a publicly-funded Social Security system. Representatives from the ATU work closely with members of Congress at the federal, state and local level to best service membership. In 2008, the ATU endorsed Hillary Clinton in her bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

The ATU is currently in the midst of a large-scale, nationwide organizing campaign, with a goal of reaching 200,000 total members by the next ATU International Convention in 2010. In October 2003, it supported a strike of mechanics against Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority in Los Angeles over the cost and control of its benefit plan. The union avoided the benefit cost increases demanded by the MTA, while deferring resolution over other issues. A bitter 38-month strike against Greyhound launched in 1990 was finally settled in 1993. The ATU consolidated the twenty different "locals" that had once represented Greyhound employees into one: Local 1700.

Its current International President is Warren S. George, who assumed office on July 1, 2003. Michael J. Siano currently serves as International Executive Vice President, and Oscar Owens serves as International Secretary-Treasurer. A similar union affiliate with AFL-CIO is the Transport Workers Union of America, which represents transit workers at the New York City Transit Authority.

ee also

*2006 TTC wildcat strike

External links

* [http://www.atu.org/ Amalgamated Transit Union]
* [http://www.atucanada.ca/index.asp ATU Canada]
* [http://www.angelfire.com/al/silverball/strikes.html "The Great Greyhound Strikes"] (Mineta Transportation Institute College of Business commentary and analysis)