JOHN NATIONS NEEDS TO BE FIRED, NOT GIVEN A $75,000 A YEAR RAISE!

On what planet does CEO John Nations think he deserves a $75,000 pay raise?  Now he makes $325,000 dollars a year.

http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Metro-CEO-gets-pay-rise-despite-contract-impasse-rate-hikes-272799461.html

And whether you ride public transportation or not, YOU ARE PAYING FOR IT.

If you are one of the many public transit riders that is already calling Governor Nixon (who appointed Nations) about Michael Brown's murder, why not take another minute to demand he fire Nations?  Call Illinois Governor Quinn, too!

If this outrageous pay raise weren't enough, have a look at how racist Nations treats his mostly African-American drivers at the bargaining table. He is the modern day equivalent of a slave master. 

St. Louis, MO – The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) has called on Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to remove Metro CEO John Nations for his failure to “correct the outrageous conduct of his staff at the bargaining table” in a letter to the Governors.
In the letter, ATU points to evidence of race baiting by members of Metro’s negotiating committee who offered members of ATU Local 788 a recipe for OREO Cookies at the end of a very heated bargaining session. There have been no contract talks since. Metro workers have gone three years without a new contract and six years without a wage increase.
“While the majority of the bus operators at ATU Local 788 are African-American, most mechanics are White, as is the President,” ATU International President wrote in the letter. “The obvious message to us with the recipe was that our union is white on the inside and black on the outside, like the cookie. This transparent race baiting went well beyond the bounds of human decency.”
The incident occurred as Nations engaged in illegal activity by encouraging mechanics to leave the ATU and form their own union. He has publically dismissed the “OREO” incident as a Metro employee sharing his baking hobby.

What a load of crap.  Nations is so firmly entrenched in the St. Louis "Good Ole Boy" Network he think that he answers to no one and can act with impunity!  I hope transit riders will join Metro drivers in challenging this, and in getting him fired!

http://www.stltoday.com/news/multimedia/videos/metro-workers-picket-outside-offices/html_2a08c1df-30ce-56b5-9bbb-3f4733fa665a.html

Read the whole report from the Union here:
http://www.atu.org/media/releases/atu-calls-on-govs-nixon-and-quinn-to-remove-metro-ceo-nations

Other posts about Nations:
http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/04/what-metro-is-doing-with-your-money-and.html
http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/03/do-metro-executives-ride-public-transit.html

OCCUPY YOUR LIFE THIS THURSDAY AND FIGHT FOR $15!

September 4th EDIT/UPDATE: Ferguson, representin':
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/business/economy/fast-food-workers-seeking-higher-wages-are-arrested-during-sit-ins.html?_r=0

This is a reprint form the Occupy Your Life blog:
http://occupyurlife.blogspot.com/2014/09/fast-food-thursday-fight-for-15-show-me.html

With only 318,000 people in Saint Louis, and 49.5% African-American, an a big chunk of small business owners living in the county, a $15 minimum wage in the city should be fairly easy to institute.  Yes, it will take more than protests.  It will take massive campaigning and petitioning.  But it is within reach.

In the meantime, don't eat at a fast food restaurant this Thursday, and call the corporate offices of McDonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King, etc, and tell them you stand with their striking workers.

More importantly, call Mayor Slay and Governor Nixon, and your local Mayor and representatives, and tell them you demand a $15 an hour minimum wage.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/02/more-fast-food-strikes-are-coming_n_5751630.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

METRO'S NEW GATEWAY CARD: HOW METRO COULD ATTRACT MORE RIDERS AND REALLY SERVE THE PUBLIC

Metro has a new Transit Debit card they are bringing out in 2015.  As usual, it is just enough to produce reams of self-congratulating marketing propaganda, but not really anything new, useful or revolutionary.

http://www.mygatewaycard.com/

It's the third story down on this article:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/traffic/along-for-the-ride/03700176-1c14-50c0-aab3-7a74ebddf147.html

That's great that it the card will "tap out" at $7.50 but to really do something useful, they need to have it tap out at $78 every month (the price of the monthly pass).

Moreover, as OPTINSTL keeps reminding people, WHETHER YOU RIDE METRO OR NOT, YOU PAY FOR IT!  Metro needs to be separated from Bi-State Development Agency and it needs to be community or communally owned by the cities and municipalities and counties it serves. 

EVERYONE should get a Gateway card, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to have people's names on it.  EVERYONE should get two free rides (two hour passes) a year on the card.

And EVERY ELECTION DAY and the FOURTH OF JULY should be FREE FARE DAYS.

If Metro was run by people whose only purpose was to make public transit serve the needs of the public, instead of being a funnel for massive government funds for Bi-State to use in leveraging "business development" and making private contractors rich, and thereby padding the CEO's future political ambitions, these changes would have already been made.

We would already have a North-South Metrolink (instead of those worn-out reconditioned 64 foot buses at $1.5 million each).  And that $5 million a year fare increase would have been paid for with the funds currently going to "Contributions to Outside Entities" (that's political campaign donations).

CALL METRO, CALL THE GOVERNOR, CALL MAYOR SLAY AND YOUR LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES AND DEMAND A BETTER GATEWAY CARD, FREE FARE DAYS, AND AN END TO THE PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP OF METRO AND BI-STATE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY!

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."

VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 7, PROPOSED STATEWIDE SALES TAX INCREASE

EDIT: St. Louis Today posted this great article on Sunday, June 22nd:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/political-fix/coming-to-a-tv-screen-near-you-missouri-s-sales/article_2b9096df-ce44-5307-9cd2-d1bd34df70bf.html

I have more to say about this topic, but this is the text of the statement to our "leaders" and the leaflet I will be taking to the open hearing tomorrow at the Central Library.  (There is also a hearing today at UMSL and one on Thursday in Cottleville. http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/modot-kicks-public-meetings-transportation-tax-list)
 

17 June 2014

Dear St. Louis City and County, and Missouri “leaders”:

     I find it reprehensible that this state is asking its citizens for MORE MONEY! Especially for “roads and bridges”! One thing we have quite enough of here in St. Louis is road, highway, and bridge construction. We need improved public transit, especially in the areas that use it the most. We need a metrolink that runs from north county to south county. We need high speed rail connecting Saint Louis to Jefferson City, Kansas City, and Columbia.

     These “wish lists” are just fantasy to sell this tax hike to voters. And even the fantasy allocates only $12 million of the $500 million budget to public transit. Once you get our money you will do whatever you want with it. We were told in April of 2010 that Prop A was going to save Metro. In 2013 Prop A collected $78 million in the county and $11 million in the city. Yet all that money has done is pay off the interest on Metro's outrageous debt for the Shrewbury Metrolink extension. Fares are being increased in July and Metro faces continued insolvency.

     And you didn't tell us, back in 2010, that County Executive Charlie Dooley could withhold that $78 million he collects on Prop A and allocate it instead to more roads and bridges. And let's just consider what all this construction is really about: making wealthy companies like Clayco wealthier. Which, of course, makes their contributions to your political campaign funds larger, but does absolutely nothing for the public.

     Why are we being asked to make the already wealthy contractors and developers and engineers of this city even wealthier, when by U-6 numbers we have 10% unemployment, and our schools are failing? I keep hearing about how “attracting talented young professionals” is the key to St. Louis economic growth. This is not only ridiculous, it is offensive.

     Obviously, you do not think that the youth of St. Louis have the capability to become “talented young professionals” with an “entreupreneurial spirit.” If you did you would save our schools, create jobs and internship opportunities, invest in more day care, and give the same investment incentives and tax breaks to local small businesses that you give to these big corporations (who often put the locals out of business!).

     If you believed in your citizens, you would be working to abolish right-to-work legislation, increase the state's minimum wage, and make this a better state for workers. Low wage jobs are the only part of the job sector that is growing. I don't trust a state that makes it more difficult to get unemployment so that it can use the unemployment fund to pay off its debts, and keeps milking sales tax like it is a cash cow.

     We, the people, deserve real leaders. We do not need a County Executive that gives a museum director a half a million dollar a year salary. We do not need a Mayor that governs only the southern, “white” half of the city. We do not need a Metro CEO that supports “right to work”, refuses to negotiate a new union contract with his drivers, is paid $250,000 a year, and gives $5 million a year in “contributions to outside entities.”

     Everything about this city and state's “economic development” is backward and mismanaged (and possibly corrupt). If you can't increase the well being of the people currently living here, with the vast amounts of money we are already giving you, why should we trust you with more money? Why would more people want to move here?

     What are you doing to make the quality of our lives better? For the WHOLE city, not just the middle and upper class citizens. What are you doing to close the $32,000 a year income gap, the “Delmar Divide”, where the median income in north St. Louis is just $8,000 a year, and the south is $40,000?
     The northern half of this city is treated like a reservation or concentration camp, filled with hostile natives, incarcerated by lack of job opportunity, poverty, crumbling neighborhoods, and miserable public transit options. We don't need more Ballpark Villages and Cortex communities. All this does is shift the wealth, it doesn't create more. (Cortex is especially insulting. That they were given DOT TIGER funding, when the obvious outcome of this development is gentrification. And $9 million of taxpayer money to tear down the existing CWE Metrolink station to build a new one a few blocks away? OUTRAGEOUS!)

     We don't need more roads and bridges. We don't need another sales tax increase. We need leaders that can effectively manage the money they have now, and who address the real problems facing our city and state.  

THE PEOPLE SAY “NO” TO AMENDMENT 7!!! 

 

VOTE NO ON “AMENDMENT 7”

THE PROPOSED MISSOURI STATEWIDE SALES TAX INCREASE ON THE BALLOT AUGUST 2014 !

Your vote counts in local and state elections! And even if you cannot vote, you are still a sales tax paying citizen of this state! And St. Louis city and county already have the highest sales tax rates in the state!

Call your local and state representatives and tell them you are against Amendment 7. Tell them you what we need to make this city and state more economically viable! MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

WHAT ABOUT OUR SCHOOLS?! Where is all that lottery money going? Why are they asking us for more money for highways and bridges when our kids are suffering in unaccredited and crowded school districts? Where is the funding for after-school and youth programs? Internship opportunities? Scholarships?

WHAT ABOUT PUBLIC TRANSIT AND HIGH SPEED RAIL? In 2010 voters agreed to Prop A to “save” Metro, and yet they are still insolvent! They are raising fares on July 1^st and have not put in a single foot of new Metrolink track in 8 years! We need a statewide speed rail system that links St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Columbia. We don't need more highways!

WHAT ABOUT HOUSING? One hundred thousand homes and lots sit vacant in St. Louis city and county, many bank or city/county owned, and yet we have thousands of homeless. The problem is much larger than just 26 houses in the Ranken Technical College neighborhood! And at the least the vacant lots could be turned into urban farms or “edible” parks, and playgrounds!

WHAT ABOUT JOBS? We need more jobs, and better jobs! More job training! A higher minimum wage! More protection for workers! Stronger unions! More daycare!

GET INVOLVED! THIS IS YOUR MONEY! THIS IS YOUR CITY! THIS IS YOUR STATE!

Governor Jay Nixon: (573) 751-3222

Mayor Francis Slay: (314) 534-2009   mayorslay@mayorslay.com

Board of Aldermen: (314) 622-3287       

County Executive Charlie Dooley: (314) 615-7016

Learn more about Amendment 7 and the proposed projects:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/the-platform/editorial-ten-good-reasons-to-vote-against-the-transportation-sales/article_48a47c71-3a4c-5e0e-b7c2-59d45740bf86.html

http://nextstl.com/2014/05/st-louis-city-produces-project-list-possible-sales-tax-revenue/

http://nextstl.com/2014/06/modot-produces-draft-sales-tax-transportation-project-list/

Join the movement for better public transit: This leaflet was produced by Occupy Public Transportation in St. Louis (OPTINSTL). If you ride public transit, consider boycotting Metro in protest of the fare increase! 

JULY 1^st! STRIKE CITYWIDE! DON'T RIDE!

please print and share this leaflet

optinstl.blogspot.com                      optinstl@gmail.com

SALES TAX IS THE NEW CASH COW

http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/proposed-missouri-transportation-tax-headed-ballot

Instead of taxing corporations, and while "business developments" like Ballpark Village are being given salex tax "credits" (Ballpark Village gets to keep 17 million dollars worth of sales tax collected), the public is continually being asked to pay for more and more, with less and less say in what the money is used for.

Let's talk about my one of my favorite issues: public toilets.

Going for a weekend vacation 2 hour drive along a highway?  There are rest stops with public toilets. 

Going on a DAILY 2 hour bus trip, one way, to your job?  No public toilets.

The same developers and construction companies are going to get this money, and they are going to get richer.  They will be using that money to fund campaigns of politicians that will support more "transportation projects."

It's not just their fault, though.  It's ours, too.  We should be telling them what to do.  NOT ASKING, TELLING.  It is our money. 

If someone stole $416 from you, you would call the police and report the robbery.  At the minimum, that is what you are giving the government in sales tax every year.  (Assuming all you buy is basic food and necessities at $100 a week for a year, and pay 8 percent on those purchases.)

Call Governor Nixon, Mayor Slay, and your local Alderman and let them know you are AGAINST any further increases to sales tax.