For my brothers and sisters of the Amalgamated Transit Union in Pennsylvania and across America, the last year has been a difficult one. As front-line workers, our members have gone to work every day while exposing themselves to COVID-19. Many have contracted the disease and far too many have died. This week we have been stunned by the senseless killing and wounding of transit workers, ATU members, in San Jose, Calif., who work for the Santa.
A graduate of Cupertino High School and Evergreen College, Michael Rudometkin lived in Santa Cruz with his wife, Gloria. He was killed Wednesday morning when authorities say a VTA worker opened fired on his colleagues at the light rail yard on West Younger Ave in San Jose.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (PAI) Perhaps it was inevitable in an era of mass shootings nationwide, but one finally hit the union movement personally, at the Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority in San Jose, Calif., on May 26. It’s the 15th mass shooting in the U.S. so far this year.
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Earlier this month, Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) introduced legislation that dropped the proverbial hammer on the Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority (VTA), Assembly Bill 1091. The legislation would completely overhaul the VTA’s Board of Directors by shrinking the board, changing the length of the terms of office from two years to four and banning elected officials from holding seats on the board. Berman’s legislation is based on recommendations from a 2018-2019 Civil Grand Jury report from Santa Clara County (PDF) that blasted VTA as the “most expensive and least efficient transit agency in the country.”