Bus Driver’s Firing Shows Need for Employee Free Choice Act

by James Parks, May 1, 2007

Russ Evans…fired bus driver.

We reported that Bill Groesz, a bus driver in Bend, Ore., courageously risked his job and health insurance to tell his firsthand experience with an employer who tried to block his choice to join a union.

Now we learn from the Oregon AFL-CIO that one of his colleagues, Russ Evans, also a Bend Area Transit (BAT) bus driver, was fired by Paratransit Services, the out-of-state contractor that runs the transit system, just a month after testifying in support of bills that would restore workers’ freedom to choose a union. The firing came nine days after he asked the Bend City Council to urge Paratransit to recognize the union for which a majority of employees voted in January.

A majority of the City Council approved a letter to Paratransit, encouraging the contractor to drop its appeal of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision recommending certification of the union. Bend’s police, firefighters and other city employees have union representation.

More than three months ago, BAT workers voted to join Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, but the company has refused to recognize the results of the federally supervised election, challenged the election and appealed the NLRB hearing officer’s judgment in favor of the workers joining the ATU.

Paratransit Services receives between $95,000 and $101,000 a month from the city to run BAT, according to the city Finance Department.

Evans’ firing points up one of the major reasons the Employee Free Choice Act (S. 1041) should be passed. The legislation would rein in the employer harassment, intimidation and stalling that tens of thousands of workers encounter every year when they try to form unions and bargain for a better life.

The bill also would allow workers to decide to join a union by majority sign-up, or card-check, when an employer agrees to recognize the union if a majority of workers signs union authorization cards.

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