The TWU is running an aggressive campaign to get ahead of technology as it emerges in our transit and other transportation systems.
We are deploying multi-faceted strategies – policy & legislation, political action, bargaining, communications and research – predicated on getting the union ready for the onslaught of new technology.
Our readiness, at the International and local level, is critical if we are to protect our members’ jobs and livelihoods.
Since our launch, we have made great strides.
- We have built an IU team led by Administrative VP Curtis Tate, TUUS Director Willie Brown and Ed Wytkind, former TTD president, who was hired as a senior advisor
- We have deepened our knowledge around the latest technologies and service innovations
- We have significantly expanded our leadership and elevated our voice and messaging on technology and innovation policy
- We have engaged and educated many locals and will continue to expand these conversations
- We have developed comprehensive technology bargaining language
- And we have launched a new technology campaign newsletter
TWU is Leading the Way in Washington
TWU is now the leading union in Washington on transportation technology including AV legislation and regulations.
We have significantly changed the congressional terrain through strategic lobbying, testifying and political action. We now have significant influence over the legislative process which was previously dominated and dictated by the Big Tech and AV lobby.
We are urging that Congress mandate tough safety regulations on the development and deployment of AVs.
We are making the case for a mandatory operator on-board any transit vehicle no matter the level of automation achieved. No level of automation can replace the human bus or train operator any more than we would eliminate the pilots in a highly automated cockpit.
And TWU has successfully advocated for a new approach at the US DOT which is now saying that its development of AVs will be focused on safety and good, union job creation and that workers will have a “seat at every table” throughout the innovation process. This is big shift away from the Trump DOT that did very little in this area other than act as a cheerleader for the AV industry.
Tech Bargaining Language
We have developed tech bargaining language that would accomplish our core objectives: to require management to provide advance notice of any new technology, to secure a broad definition of technology to include AVs, ZEBs, and service innovations such as on-demand, and to require management to negotiate with TWU over implementation of new technology and innovations.
Meetings with Locals
We are reaching out to locals with a focus on three main objectives: 1) to educate them on the technologies we are seeing and the campaign we are building; 2) to enlist their involvement and brief them on the tech bargaining language, and 3) to learn more about what they face in terms of technology and upcoming contract negotiations. We will continue to pursue as many of these meetings as we can schedule.
We need locals fully involved as partners. Our message:
- We must be smarter than our employers on technology
- TWU International and Locals must speak with a clear and unified voice
- We must meet with agency leadership and innovation leads to better understand agency plans around technology and service innovations
- Local, state, and federal elected officials must hear from us about our campaign
- We need a strategic ground game especially around bargaining
- We need to execute a tech bargaining strategy and offer our proposal at the table
Transit Future of Work Research Project with Carnegie Mellon University
The TWU has forged a relationship with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), a leading university in the fields of technology and innovation. The university is a rich source of some of the most experienced faculty on robotics, automation, human-computer interaction research, much of it funded by the federal government. CMU also has an institute that leads on autonomous vehicle technology.
With support from the national AFL-CIO and its Technology Institute, the TWU has built a new research initiative with CMU – Transit Future of Work. We have since invited ATU to join and they are now participating. A team of CMU faculty is working with us, Wytkind, to jointly build and implement multi-faceted research into the work that our members do.
This project supports our core objective: to show that bus operators do not just drive but rather, they are first-responders who constantly keep transit service safe, deal with road and weather emergencies, elderly and disabled passenger assistance, on-board assaults, and unforeseen circumstances that require fast acting human involvement and intervention.
This project will involve drivers from both unions who will participate in focus groups followed by longer “diary studies” that chronicle the experiences of drivers. The conversations will be designed to have our members tell the research team about the day-to-day job of operators. Our plan is to recruit drivers who can talk about their various experiences – from emergencies to on-board situations such as an assault, threatened assault or medical distress.
The output from this research will feed the TWU technology campaign with new and rich data and evidence about the essential roles played by operators.
Zero-Emission Bus Transition
The TWU is also fully engaging in developing a strategy to deal with the fast pace of transition in our transit agencies to zero-emission buses. There is considerable momentum building around the country as the automakers plan to transition completely to electric vehicles in the next 10-15 years and as cities and states announce aggressive plans to phase out diesel transit buses in the next couple decades. Our agencies are already planning for zero-emission buses.
We are doing a few things.
First, we need to work with federal, state and local government and our employers to institute high-caliber training programs that prepare our members. If we fail to ensure the readiness of our members, our agencies will argue for expanded use of contracted labor to maintain the fleets.
Second, there are billions in new federal funds to assist transit agencies in transitioning to zero-emission fleets. TWU successfully advocated for requirements that agencies must devote at least 5% of those funds for workforce training. We must get ahead of this and develop both a national strategy and specifically, training programs on the ground with our locals.
Third, we must fully take advantage of our participation as a board member at the International Transportation Learning Center (ITLC), a labor-management consortium that is developing a national framework and curriculum for ensuring we have the resources and structure needed to deliver high quality training to our members at scale. This is a work in progress, but we are figuring out how ITLC can help us scale this effort.