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| Thomas Dunn |
Deke's Note: Confession: I put off writing this post for two weeks. Perhaps that's a good thing because posting it closer to the event's date might spur you to join us this year. Please do.
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None of us know when we'll walk out our door for the last time. Or kiss our Beloved, hug our kids, sniff our favorite rose. Nobody does. Perhaps that's why so many people look surprised when it happens. Imagine a transit worker, entrusted with the public's safety, suddenly cut down and wondering "How? Why?" as they die on the job.
#BANDTOGETHER for...
ATU Local 1593
Thomas Dunn May 18, 2019... Seen on camera smiling and interacting with his murderer seconds before having his throat cut as he drove his Tampa, FL bus route. Before bleeding out in the seat, Operator Dunn's last thoughts were for his passengers' safety. He brought his bus to a safe stop and set the brake before he died. He had implored his transit agency's board of directors to take greater steps to ensure the safety of operators. Brother Dunn left behind a wife, son and five daughters who wondered why his pleas were ignored.
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| RIP Shawn Yim |
I cannot imagine the agony Mrs. Shawn Yim felt upon the news that her Beloved 59-year-old Shawn was brutally murdered and would never return home. He was a Bus Operator in Seattle, stabbed to death 10 months ago. His friends and co-workers all sung praises of his gentle self. Our union local leaders traveled in a TriMet bus to participate in the procession to his memorial.
ATU Local 732
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| RIP Leroy Ramos |
In January 2025, Mrs. Leroy Ramos of Marietta, Georgia suffered the same nightmare. After moving to the Atlanta area from New York, Brother Ramos, 47, landed the job as Bus Operator with MARTA. He was shot by a teenager over $2.50 in bus fare. A few hundred pennies cost this family a father of three and devoted husband on his bus route in Decatur.
ATU Local 1505
Irvine "Jubal" Fraser was stabbed to death in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Valentine's Day 2017 as he insisted a passenger leave his bus at the end of the line.
ATU International, Teamsters and ALL Transit Unions
Each time one of us is attacked, we ALL are. Each transit worker's murder shakes us to the core. Any time we lose one of US, we collectively feel the loss. Personally, my own PTSD erupts whenever I hear stories of you being attacked.
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As we prepare for #BANDTOGETHER2025, the 9th Annual Observance, I'm still anguished over the horrid murders and thousands of attacks each year upon my dear brothers and sisters. While ATU International recognizes we are constantly in danger, its slogan remains "NOTONEMORE", yet there always is that... one... more... we have to deal with. Our local VP's suggestion of "#NOMORE" was met with deathly silence, but is more appropriate.
They said NOTONEMORE, but then our Sister Laverne was brutally beaten after being relieved in downtown Portland. Previously, Sister Pam was beaten over bus fare. Then our Brother Michael was attacked a few years back on a MAX platform after he asked a lad if he was okay sitting in the horrid 110 degrees summer heat. Michael was genuinely asking after the lad's well-being, only to be brutally beaten for his concern.
Early this year, Brother Mike was held at gunpoint downtown, wondering if he'd ever see his wife and babies again. Just talking about it a few months later, his voice shook with emotion. At the union picnic this summer, I watched him with his beautiful babies, the oldest who just recently went to kindergarten her first day. To imagine her having to do this without her daddy jolts me into rivers of empathetic tears. Thankfully, he shared this day with her and will also do so with her baby brother.
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We have barriers, after fighting hard for them. Besides this, our agency has made miniscule efforts on our behalf. Transit centers remain a bastion of violence. The "customer service" teams seem a waste of money because they're not immediately available in a crisis, being transit dependent and therefore not very mobile. A severe lack of supervisors and shortage of transit cops leave us vulnerable to attack and left to our wits when faced with dangerous passengers.
We are forbidden to have any tools of self defense. No pepper spray or weapons. Only our wits, wisdom and billions of years of evolutionary biology to protect ourselves.
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For the past eight years, we come together the third week of September to participate in a silent protest called BANDTOGETHER. We wear a bandage on our "door side" cheek with the number of attacks reported to our local that year (that we know of), or the initials of Transit Workers who lost their lives on the job. It's a conversation starter. Many people have asked me over the years what the bandage signifies. They're often shocked when I tell them.
What good does that do? I'm often asked this by fellow union members. I tell them it's about taking a stand for my fellow transit workers and opening a dialog with our riding public. It's also a statement that I refuse to be apathetic and hope that this voice is but a snowflake which begins an avalanche of public awareness.
Please join us. Transit workers worldwide have participated in the past. From Canada to Australia, Florida to Washington, New York to Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix... wherever transit workers keep the wheels rolling, we are constantly vulnerable to attacks..
If you do join us, please send me a selfie of you wearing the bandage in your work environment. My email is deaconinblue@gmail.com.
Thank you, and may each day see you safely home again.
Working on it. We've tried it before here without much success.
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