The bus drivers of Chicago, under the guidance of their union, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Division 241, have called for a walkout.
The ATU is trying to show that it’s more militant than the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which is trying to take over the representation of the city’s bus drivers. In recent months, Teamster locals have displaced ATU locals with promises of aggressive representation, especially when it comes to bargaining for wages and benefits.
In an earlier blog, I had warned that as a result of the rupture in the AFL-CIO, militant break-away unions would raid other union’s members as well as attempt to organize union-free companies. It’s happening, and it will continue to happen.
The Chicago bus drivers have not walked out since 1979; but in this changing climate of heated militancy, more walkouts, slow downs, and strikes will become ever more commonplace.
And with the attempt by Democratic senators to pass The Employee Free Choice Act even more companies are going to find that they are in the sights of unions’ hired guns, the organizers, who have put targets on the backs of many companies.
