Home Asides NYC bus driver voted new ATU president

NYC bus driver voted new ATU president

by Benjamin Kabak

The Amalgamated Transit Union, the city’s biggest bus driver union, has voted one of New York’s own as their next president. The ATU announced yesterday that Larry Hanley, a 32-year New York City Transit veteran, has been elected head of the ATU International. Hanley, one of the founders of the Keep America Moving coalition, is billed as a reform candidate, and shortly after his election yesterday, he spoke with Labor Notes’ Mark Brennan about his plans for the union.

The interview touches upon a variety of topics that impact New Yorkers and Americans in general. Hanley talks about the need for better legislative action that keeps transit agencies afloat and talks about working with T4America to promote green jobs and transit expansion. He recognizes that unions have earned a bad rap these days but seems to understand that car culture, particularly in New York City, is bad for our community and our environment. “If we can organize and convince the users of mass transit and the workers of mass transit that they have a common interest, and if you carry that forward into different areas in the labor movement, that is a long, hard battle but it’s in reach. It’s also an imperative,” he said. “If we don’t do it we’ll cease to exist.”

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4 comments

Alon Levy October 1, 2010 - 7:14 pm

Pardon my ignorance, but could you remind me which workers are organized by the TWU and which by the ATU?

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nycpat October 1, 2010 - 11:14 pm

NYCT is TWU. He was 18 months with NYCT. The 32years was with express buses/ATU.

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Sharon October 1, 2010 - 11:41 pm

“Pardon my ignorance, but could you remind me which workers are organized by the TWU and which by the ATU?”

Staten island is ATU that is a major reason that why 90% of staten island express buses drive back to SI empty after the morning rush just to return empty in the afternoon.

ATU and TWU work together to drive up costs of providing bus service. They think they OWN the routes they drive

“Nut when you pick and pick into a TWU division depot (Brooklyn, 126st, or MaBSTOA), you are stuck there. You can only switch between them during the General Pick (TWU depots). If you pick into an ATU depot (STI and QUEENS), you can only pick between those during the General Pick. Unless some like Queens are still under that “whatever depot you pick, you picked for life”.”

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Sharon October 1, 2010 - 11:49 pm

That’s right the two unions decide who can work at which depot they can not move between the two. Mofia style!!

The union will also not allow the mta to merge NYCT routes with MaBSTOA routes which is why you see 60 foot articulated buses running at 2 am . these buses get far worse fuel economy, cost more per bus and operators get paid more.

MaBSTOA is an operating unit of the mta separate from NYCT that absorbed the old manahattan private bus routes that the subways killed off. They are a separate operating division with separate seniority lists. The mta has been trying to merge them into one to save money for 20 years. Drivers and bus routes can not be interlined together to save money.

The mta has three bus operating units that if combined into one could save tens of millions per year. NYCT, MaBSTOA and MTA bus (partially subsidized by NYC DOT)

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