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From the May-June 2006 issue of Union Democracy Review #162
NYC schoolbus drivers demand action against indicted officers
By Judith Schneider
Three hundred New York City school bus, van drivers, and other members of Local 1181, Amalgamated Transit Union, rallied on the steps of NYC's City Hall on June 4th. They demanded that their international hold public hearings on how their local is being run by officers indicted for mob connections. Federal, state, and city legislators spoke in support. One hundred elected officials, including members of Congress and a majority of the NY City Council have written letters urging International President Warren George to act. So far, not only has the international shrugged off all these demands; it has given a PR boost to the suspect officers. In its January/February issue, long after the indictments, the official ATU international magazine, In Transit, featured a laudatory account of L. 1181 leadership. There was no mention of the indictments or the mob.
Last July, the federal government charged that organized crime had infiltrated and influenced the activities of the local. The local's president, secretary-treasurer, and pension fund director were indicted together with "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, acting boss of the Genovese crime family, and some 15 others. Trial is scheduled for September. Members have additional cause for concern. They point to their defense fund which they estimate should have at least $20 million but has less than half that sum and ask where the $10 million went. They say pensions have not increased in 10 years and that the funds are insufficient to support retirees. And they are apprehensive because ongoing contract negotiations remain in the hands of an indicted leadership, one, they say, that is unresponsive and unrepresentative.
The rally was spearheaded by Members for Change, a reform group which last June ran a multi-racial slate challenging the incumbent president and the rest of the local's executive board (entirely white in a local nearly 75 percent non-white.) They got more than 25 percent of the vote in the over 15,000 member local, an impressive first-time achievement in a local and industry which has operated since at least 1991allegedly influenced by mob connected figures.
Among the notables at the rally on June 4 were Congressperson Major Owens, State Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat (Chair of the Assembly's Black and Puerto Rican-Hispanic Legislative Caucus) and NYC Council Member David Weprin (Chair of the Council's Finance Committee.)
See also ATU refuses to oust accused 1181 officers.
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