Deke's Note: As promised, here is another post by a candidate for ATU757's upcoming election. My apologies for the delay.
My next guest on this blog is Henry Beasley, candidate for Vice President.
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| Henry Beasley |
1) Please briefly introduce yourself to the membership. How long have you been a transit employee and in what capacity?
My name is Henry Beasley. I’ve been a transit employee for 17 years as a bus operator.
2) What are your unique skills and experience which make you a logical choice for the office you are seeking?
First and foremost, I am a union activist, so all my actions are based on bringing people together. Through activism and bringing members together, we have forced an agency to change directions because of our collective action. For example, an agency was getting away with stealing labor from members on pre-tripping buses, I saw that there was a problem when the agency was getting on members for leaving late to their routes. By random, I saw an article about this very issue from one of our sister locals (#587) out of Seattle. The article states that there was an Unfair Labor Practice/ lawsuit against the agency for not paying its members for the time it would take for them to do a proper pre-trip. Local 587 was awarded about 9 million in back pay, which was based on an 18-minute pre-trip, not the 10 minutes they were paying workers. I brought this to the attention of our leadership, and to the workers that were directly affected. Our leadership failed to do anything, but the membership started to talk about the subject, and the agency could not ignore the chatter concerning the award that local 587 received. They changed the policy, and the pre-trip was changed to 15 minutes from the 10 minutes in their policy, while avoiding any back pay if our leadership would have fight for fair pay.
Through activism I have become an expert on the attack issue that plagues public transportation. I’ve Researched the trends, statistics, laws, and patterns of behavior, listening to over a thousand distress calls I have concluded the following. The top 5 causes of increases of aggression in public transportation:
1. Cutting service
2. Customer conduct
3. Code enforcement
4. Laws
5. Fare increases
I have concluded that these issues need to be made public, as transit workers and riders alike want the same thing.
Partnering with members of the ATU and TWU, we help organize the Band-Together movement to raise awareness of attacks against transit workers.
* The purpose of BAND-TOGETHER is to create a dialog with the riding public in every transit district. By placing a band-aid on our right cheeks, riders will ask out of curiosity, “what’s that?” which will open the door for that conversation. Sometimes, something so small can have the greatest impact.
Other experiences, I paid for because updated union education was unavailable and inadequate to what was/is going on.
* On-line with Penn State for labor relations (you must know what’s going on, on the other side of the table).
* Essence of international human resources
* Employee training and development
* Labor relations and collective bargaining
* Collective bargaining in the private sector
* Labor relations in the public sector
* Soft and hard bargaining and principled negotiations
* Certified organizer for the AFLCIO through their seminars.
* Arbitration seminar through the university of Oregon’s labor education and research center (L.E.R.S)
These experiences have taught me a few things:
* Contract language matters more than words.
* Continued education of members is paramount to our success.
* Unprepared officers can cost members. For example, if an officer goes into a mandatory/ disciplinary meeting with a member with nothing but a pen and paper, that member has already lost their case. We must provide the necessary tools for success at management’s door, not waiting on grievances or relying on arbitration decisions. Those tools include precedent, SOPs, past practice, collective bargaining agreements, side letters (MOA) and arbitration decisions as an example of being prepared for success. Also, the ability to write a proper grievance, will lead to more successes in arbitration.
* Arbitration should not be the first option, but better contract language should be.
3) In these post-Janus times when union-eligible workers can "opt out" of their union, how do you plan to retain them and grow our membership?
By demonstrating that we are constantly fighting for the values and foundations of what a union is, for example: the pillars of a union
* Collective bargaining – self-explanatory, negotiating the employment terms between an employer and a group of workers. Negotiating the best possible outcomes for all current, retired, and all properties under our banner. All negotiations are held in the best interests of our members.
* Workplace safety - Through collective bargaining, unions can negotiate for improved safety standards. Through bargaining, the union can push for training programs, instead of discipline that builds a culture of safety and trust between workers and management. Unions can also provide a way for members to report violations of safety and seek remedies that create a safer work environment.
* Workers’ rights – for years now, I’ve heard the phrase; “you do not have representation until the end of probation.” This is factually not true; you have Weingarten Rights. Weingarten Rights consist of the following:
During an investigatory interview, the Supreme Court ruled that the following rules apply:
Rule 1
The employee must make a clear request for union representation before or during the interview. The employee cannot be punished for making this request.
Rule 2
After the employee makes the request, the employer must choose from among three options:
* Grant the request and delay questioning until the union representative arrives and (prior to the interview continuing) the representative has a chance to consult privately with the employee.
* Deny the request and end the interview immediately; or
* Give the employee a clear choice between having the interview without representation or ending the interview.
Rule 3
If the employer denies the request for union representation, and continues to ask questions, it commits an unfair labor practice, and the employee has a right to refuse to answer. The employer may not discipline the employee for such a refusal.
Although this is a Wikipedia description, it is accurate.
With all this said the most important thing is to be visible. If your stewards, liaisons and executive officers are not available, then we have a problem. This is not a massive problem at our smaller properties, but at the smaller properties we need more stewards available for members to ask questions. At our biggest property, most members, both new and old, often do not know who their representatives are, we can fix that, with union mentorships. As vice president, my aim is to be as visible and accessible as I possibly can, something as simple as meeting and talking to members while I’m visiting their properties. With my activist experience, we can convince new members to opt in and rebuild the confidence of members who opted out.
4) Is management adequately addressing our safety? What do you think can be done to provide a safer work environment?
No, the safety of workers at our properties is not the focus of the agencies, ridership numbers are. As I have already stated that Workplace Safety is a core principle of a union. We can provide tools outside of collective bargaining, such as OSHA. We must make it clear that part of your workers’ rights is to exercise your other rights. The federal law entitles you to a have a safe workplace. Your employer must keep your workplace free of known health and safety hazards. You have the right to speak up about hazards without fear of retaliation. It takes something as simple as reporting hazards to your representatives, so that we can address these issues promptly. If there is a workplace hazard that has caused our members injuries, then we need to gather as much information as possible. “Workman’s Comp is not there to make you whole; it is there to make you functional,” those two things are very different. “If you see/feel something, say something.”
5) Please share your added opinions on a topic which has not been covered in my previous questions.
Communication is something this local lacks. Back in 2015 I created a Facebook live program called The Union Minute. The show covers a host of topics to create conversations that we are not having with each other. Members can tune in every month and talk about issues and catch up on what’s going on in our union. If elected, we would do something similar on our union Facebook page.
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