From June 11th through the 14th, ATU 757 President Shirley Block and Executive Board Officer Bill Bradley, along with 150 other ATU Officers from around the country, attended the ATU International Legislative Conference. They heard from speakers such as Rep. Rob Menendez, Rep. Adam Schiff, Senator Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, and Pennsylvania Lt. Governor (and son of an ATU Local 85 Bus Operator) Austin Davis. ATU International's Director of Government Affairs, Jeff Rosenberg, highlighted the current federal priorities that are being worked on.

1. ATU International is working with Rep. Rob Menendez to draft a letter imploring the FTA to finish rulemaking regarding Transit Operator Assault Safety.

2. Drafting Legislation to prevent the automation of transit and school buses.

3. Lobbying members of Congress to allow for flexibility of Federal grants to be used for Operations, not just purchasing new equipment and building new infrastructure.

4. Demanding members of Congress pass the Richard L Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act (the PRO Act).

In addition to just learning about the priorities, President Block and Executive Board Officer Bradley were able to personally meet with 6 out of the 8 members of Oregon's Federal Delegation. Representative's Blumenauer, Hoyle, Bonamici, Salinas(staff) and Senator's Wyden(staff) and Merkley(staff).

To finish out the conference, ATU International trained all present about the incoming wave of Microtransit, a new "concept" being peddled by Transit Planners and Managements. The idea is to use smaller vehicles that are summoned on demand, to fill gaps in existing transit service. The issue is that many agencies want to contract this work or, or pay it a lower wage. ATU 757 has had success working with C-TRAN in Vancouver on a project like this, The Current, where wages and benefits are the same as any other Bus Operator. This is considered the gold standard. Pre-pandemic, Salem Cherriots attempted an on-demand service that did not work and it was abandoned.

This work is only possible through voluntary contributions to ATU COPE, ATU's Political Action Committee. Please consider contributing to allow our Union to grow our power, both here in Oregon and in Washington D.C.