Barbwire by Barbáno: Union busters in town to disrupt bus system

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Union busters in town to disrupt bus system
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Online Edition 7-13-2017 / Updated 7-14, 7-15, 7-16 and 7-20-2017 GMT
An edited version of this commentary appears in the 7-20-2017 Reno News & Review

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The foreign-owned contractor hired to oppress local bus system workers tries to provoke a strike to bust the Teamsters Union. Meanwhile, elected and appointed officials sit shiva while hiding under the sleazy skirt of plausible deniability. ("Not my department.")

Before you dust off your picket signs, contact the five elected members of the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) and tell them to stop this exploitation and allow workers a fair day's pay for a hard day's work. (Contact info below.)

Over the years, our elected officials have squandered millions hiring foreign (European and Texan) management corporations to run the bus system into the ground. You will find chapter and verse at my websites. Lesson: Never accept low-bid from Tejano bandidos.

New bus drivers while receiving training — and not much of it — get unadjusted-for-inflation minimum wage. When they hit the streets, they get minimum wage adjusted for inflation. Which means some live in weekly motels and can never afford the Tejanos' high-priced health insurance. Wonder how many have applied for welfare or food stamps? How many have to hit the ER for health care? You know who pays for that.

Two of three new-hires quit over wages and working conditions. This has wasted well over a quarter-million taxpayer dollars in just the past three years.

The Texans have already imported a crew of expensive, professional union busters hoping that the workers will strike so management can attempt to illegally fire everyone. Their minds seem made up either way. RTC and its minions can drop all pretense of fairness and lock out workers with or without a strike, then bring in the high-priced imports.

We taxpayers are already stuck with that cost along with posh salaries for RTC staffers, 35 of whom are compensated over $100,000 a year to a high of $322,510.59. They live high while some of their workers dwell in weekly motels. Or worse.

Stop it. NOW. A growing region with a shrinking transportation system lives in a strait jacket of exploitation and embarrassment. Senior citizens, low-wage workers, young people, students, the sick and disabled, among many others, depend on our bus system.

Contact your elected officials and demand that they fix it. NOW.

RTC COMMISSIONERS/Re-election year

CITY OF RENO
Neoma Jardon, 2018
775-334-2016
jardonn@reno.gov

Paul McKenzie, 2018
775-334-2015
mckenziep@reno.gov

RenoDirect hotline 775-334-4636
renodirect@reno.gov

WASHOE COUNTY
Bob Lucey, 2018
775-328-2012
blucey@washoecounty.us

Marsha Berkbigler, 2020
775-328-2005
mberkbigler@washoecounty.us

RTC CHAIR RON SMITH, SPARKS
Term-limited/2020
Ron Smith 775-353-2311
rsmith@cityofsparks.us

RTC EXECS
David Jickling, 775-335-1902
djickling@rtcwashoe.com
djickling@charter.net
2016 compensation: $210,754.95

Lee Gibson, 775-335-1826
lgibson@rtcwashoe.com
2016 compensation: $322,510.59

System Manager Gibson touts how he has cut costs 30 percent since 2009. His compensation has risen 17 percent just in the past three years. His workers got ZERO 2011-2013 and a generous 2 percent annually 2014-2016. Somebody please buy him a dictionary and bookmark "inflation." Then ask why he loves to give away corporate welfare: "EXCLUSIVE: RTC trying to give away $50 million+ in corporate welfare" / NevadaLabor.com 21 Dec. 2012 and Please don't cook or eat the books, Barbwire 27 Sept. 2012.

Tell them that the buck stops with them, that you are tired of big taxpayer bucks being blown by bandidos from the land of the armadillo.

Should they argue, ask them why RTC paid a bogus $1.4 million bill last year for the Pyramid/McCarran construction project. Alas and alack, the wages of e-mail get expensive. (I hear that places like the Cayman Islands and Sochi are beautiful any time of year.)

If you're not registered to vote, please do so. And bring the family,

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

SMOKING GUNS —>14 July 2017 — Illegal worker intimidation 101: Foreign RTC contractor breaks the law by putting strikebreakers to work during employee voting on management's contract proposal. It was overwhelmingly rejected. Strike authorized.
Updated 7-15, 7-16 and 7-20-2017 GMT
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