Assault Transit Union Local 308

I believe that our ATU Chicago presidents prefer that our front-line coworkers continue to be victims of assaults. It sounds outrageous, but hear me out: 

Notice how they never put their reputations on the line to help us organize long- and short-term solutions for anything. They never criticize the politicians for giving our tax revenue to the corporate war-mongering bloodsuckers of the Poor. They never, ever publicly criticize our employer on anything except front-line worker assaults.  

I have been assaulted in a station. Almost shot on train. Grabbed and charged by deranged people with nothing to lose. Threatened constantly. 

Since I was hired by the CTA in 2018, I noticed our union presidents love to talk about assaults. They love to talk about a CTA Police Force too. But they really don't do anything about the problem. They don't even want to hear anything about mitigations—such as automatically taking assaulted workers out of service with pay. We have to be savvy enough to get an injury attorney.

We have homeless coworkers. We have no paid sick leave—and are losing jobs because of it. Wage theft is standard operating procedure. Our picking rights are spat upon. Union busting, contract violations and human rights violations are daily occurrences. Some mismanagers threaten, physically and sexually assault us! Not only are we assaulted by lost souls that live on our trains and buses, but our employer assaults us in every manner imaginable!

The very few protests they organize are mostly about front-line worker assaults. Even their begging of politicians in Springfield is rooted in assaults because President Trxmp's administration is threatening to cut federal funding if assaults and crime on public transportation doesn't change for the better. 

Their solution to all of our problems seems to be in a CTA police force. Outside of selling us out and giving back what little we have left, they really want nothing else for us! 

We get hurt and they play boss and tell us to get counseling. When it comes to preventative action, they run away. Our own Local 308 president refuses to help the Howard Yard workers get their time clock reactivated.  

Cruel CTA mismanagement removed the time clock at Howard Tower, making the operations crews access the time clock at Howard Terminal—risking their lives as they go through a shooting gallery.  

Our presidents refuse to help the Howard Yard workers get their time clock back!

So in my opinion, the assaults and violence will accelerate—especially because poverty is linked to crime. Our union presidents need deadly chaos to legitimize their continued existence as our elected bosses. They will keep selling a "CTA Police Force" and distract us from everything else we need changed. Frankly, they don't care if 2,000 of us were gunned down tomorrow. They would probably love it!