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Thirty two transit drivers, mechanics and other staff at Biddeford Saco Old Orchard Beach Transit (BSOOB Transit) have formed a union with the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 714 and will soon be negotiating their first contract.
“Drivers here are woefully underpaid and that was one of the main reasons for workers wanting to organize a union,” said ATU member Joe Gaudette, who is a part-time BSOOB Transit driver. “Now that we’re officially a union we urge BSOOB Transit to work with us to reach a fair contract that appropriately compensates employees for the valuable service we provide to the community.”
BSOOB Transit is the primary provider of public transportation in the Biddeford, Saco and Old Orchard Beach region with express commuter bus service that connects the Tri-Town area to downtown Portland and seasonal trolleys that serve tourist destinations in the area. ATU 714 also represents transit workers at the Community Connector in Bangor, the Greater Portland Metro bus line and the Regional Transportation Program in Portland. The successful union election comes on the heals of two major union election victories at Portland Museum of Art and Maine Medical Center.
Few presidents in America’s history have demonstrated a higher commitment to the labor movement than President Biden. “The truth is I’m a union president, and I make no bones about that,” he said on Saturday. “I’m committed to strengthening our unions and rebuilding the backbone of this country—the middle class.” Biden sat down with a UAW local president and talked about his administration’s policies to promote American manufacturing.
Yesterday, ahead of the Leaders Summit on Climate, the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and BlueGreen Alliance, along with the UAW and United Steelworkers (USW), released a report highlighting the need to preserve high-paying union jobs in the U.S. auto industry as part of any equitable clean energy transition. The report reviews the economic impacts of the transition to electric vehicles as well as policy options for creating and preserving good union jobs.
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)—first passed in the 1930s—is supposed to provide workers protection from anti-union retaliation in the pursuit of organizing and collective bargaining. However, a new report from the Economic Policy Institute finds that the NLRA is no longer up to the task of protecting workers from anti-union actions by our employers.
On Tuesday, a jury found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd. While many in the labor movement were quick to commend the verdict, we also know that the work of racial justice must continue.
José Acevedo served in the U.S. Army before teaching high school history in New York City. After being stationed in the Panama Canal Zone from 1974 to 1977, he spent the next 30-plus years teaching ninth and tenth grade and became a member of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
On Friday, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler celebrated the House passing the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (H.R. 1195), which directs the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue a federal workplace violence prevention standard to protect workers in health care and social services from injury and death:
Thirty two transit drivers, mechanics and other staff at Biddeford Saco Old Orchard Beach Transit (BSOOB Transit) 
