The Driver's Room

Hello, and welcome to "The Driver's Room".

Bus drivers working for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority are in a weak position to organize themselves cohesively, despite the presence of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local #265. Each driver has different work hours from all others. Indeed, the same driver may have different work hours from one day to the next. A driver may start work at one location and end at another. Either, or both, of these locations may be different from the location where work assignments are posted and paychecks are collected. Bus drivers are isolated from other drivers while doing their job. Maintaining work and personal relationships under these conditions is difficult. Efforts at organizing to improve work conditions and to speak with one voice are hampered by this situation.

Ordinarily, unions adequately serve to represent a work force by providing a unified voice that speaks the will of the employees and works to implement their needs. But ATU, Local #265 has not done enough to ascertain its member's needs. It is isolated from its membership, most of whom have little time to attend monthly union meetings, and largely does whatever it wants with little, or no, oversight by its membership.

This site aims to provide a gathering place for bus drivers who have little time for monthly union meetings. It hopes to bridge the gap between each driver's differing schedules and widely dispersed work locations by providing a forum that is not dependent on place or time.

It is not my intent to undermine the union. Rather, I seek to strengthen it by giving its membership a means to overcome the barriers that weaken it. Nevertheless, some union representatives may feel threatened by this forum and may dissuade drivers from participating in it. Lowering the barriers to communication can only be good for the membership. Maintaining those barriers can only bring harm.

Management may also feel threatened, and with good reason. They have enjoyed a long history of doing whatever they want with little notice by union employees. Only the union officers and shop stewards have kept watch over their deeds, with an occasional mention by the local press. The membership at large have been mostly ignorant of what really goes on and have not spoken with a strong voice. As a result, the union has little power to influence management.

Individual drivers can use this forum to inform other members quickly of developments at VTA relevant to them. Instead of having to contact the union and wait for a newsletter or printed notice to be posted in the driver's room at each yard, and instead of having to go to the yard to read union notices, drivers can browse this site at their convenience and find information quickly. This can be a means to strengthen the voice of members who are drivers, which will, in turn, influence the union and management to not only listen, but to carefully consider the needs of the employees who implement VTA's directives where the rubber meets the road.