WHAT THE METRO JOB FAIR ON JUNE 28TH IS REALLY ABOUT

Someone commented to me the other day that Metro must be worried about OPTINSTL's call for a boycott of Metro on July 1st.

"You know that is why they are holding that job fair on the 28th," he said.

http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Metro-hosting-job-fair-on-June-28-264767711.html

I have no idea if my campaign has reached enough people to be producing that kind of results.  Are the Metro phone lines flooded?  I don't know.  I don't work there.  I can only do what I can do, and wait to see what happens.

It would be wonderful if Metro was, indeed, trying to make nice with the public to prevent a rider boycott on July 1st.  But if they were really worried, they would not have raised fares in the first place.

I think the Metro Job Fair is actually about CEO John Nations, who is publicly opposed to unions and supports the union-busting "right to work" legislation, and a direct threat he is sending his drivers:

"Don't you dare strike the week of the Fourth of July, or we will fire you."

Metro is NOT really hiring.  They are barely solvent and have plenty of part-time drivers.  They just don't want a repeat of Cardinals Opening Day "Blue Flu".

http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/04/rider-alert-metro-whines-about-one-day.html  

They don't want St. Louis to get any ideas from San Francisco or Philadelphia (unlike Pennsylvania, we don't have a Republican Governor, although Nixon often seems like a Republican).

http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/06/san-franciscos-transit-workers-blue-flu.html

http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/06/philadelphia-transit-workers-strike.html

What kind of city do you want to live in, St. Louis?  A city where people are paid a livable wage with decent benefits?  A city with good jobs and good employers?

A city with a great public transit system?

Or would you prefer a city where officials that receive $250,000 a year salaries (entirely paid for from public funds) rob their employees pensions, refuse to negotiate contracts in good faith, and exchange "business development" for promises of future political campaign contributions?  (Nations make no secret of the fact that he is only at Metro to create a platform for his campaign for governor or senator.)

http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/06/vote-no-on-amendment-7-proposed.html

St. Louis, you deserve more from Metro!  I hope you will demand it!  Don't break the Metro Operators Union.  If you get a job with Metro, don't cross the picket lines.  Metro wants minimum wage drivers that have no benefits.  All the executives care about is there own fat-cat salaries.  If they could import bus driver jobs to China and hire children and prisoners for a dollar an hour, they would.

They would say "Oh, we were protecting profits."  And pat themselves on the back for doing a great job and give themselves big fat bonuses.

Metro isn't hiring, they are firing.

Remember that.

PS- personally, although a driver strike on July 1st would be fantastic, a driver strike on July 4th would be even better.

PPS- Something else at play here, both with the timing of the fare increase and the hiring fair, is that Metro's fiscal year ends on June 30th.  Too long to go into here, but think about it.  Even though the financial reports won't be ready for at least a few weeks, they do want to make a nice face to the public.  "Hey look, we're hiring, regardless of how obviously failing we look on paper, we are hiring." *cough* "...Not."