I broke a toothe on my way to work Tuesday. I was eating a sandwich and I heard a snap and noticed a lump in what I was chewing. It was a crown with a cantelever attatched. It broke off right at the gum line.Between my dentist's schedule, and the Dispatch office, I couldn't get in to fix it until Thursday. THREE HOURS in the dentist office! The tooth broke on a sandwich, but the root had to be chipped out. I was inhaling the nitrous oxide as deeply as posible. Then he started explaining my 'OPTIONS.' He wants to let the hole fill in for three or four months, then he plans to drill two holes into the bone and put metal shafts in there. Then wait a few more months for the bone to grow back and seal them in place. After they are in there solid, he wants to attatch a crown to each shatf. These are called "implants." There is no freakin' way in hell I am going to tell any of my coworkers that I need "implants." The receptionist called to tell me it would be $6,000. I was drugged, and my mouth was bleeding and she woke me up with that news. Must have been good drugs, because I thought the news was pretty funny. I asked if he could do one with another cantelever, and I insist on calling it a replacement crown. And I will call the insurance company. The receptionist said that they wouldn't cover anything except the two implants...Uh-HUH... Anne sings a song called Raving Beauty about a woman who refused to carve her body into what men consider desireable. I heard it today and thought of the implants. I am sure this is not what the song was efering to, but it appealed to my sense of the ironic. Implants. Good Grief.

Perception is a fascinating thing. I talk about Anne Feeney to heighten awareness in hopes that someday she will play to a packed house in Boise, Idaho. Sometimes, it's small talk related to music when my regular riders are heading home at the end of a long day. Sometimes it's to change the subject when a union member wants to discuss an issue right outside a manager's open door. Sometimes it's just enthusiasm on my part. After the last union meeting I was talking to some of the officers as we left the room and I mentioned that Anne had sent an encouraging email that day. Norm oerheard the comment and turned around and said, "So, you're talking to her now?!" He thought Anne Feeney was my imaginary friend. Apparently, he figured it was time to mention the EAP program and free counseling sessions... Debbie, my best friend says I have been smitten with a severe case of hero worship. BINGO! Toni, who took the picture of Anne and I together, says, "It's much deeper than that." What??! Actually, I am at a turning point in my life. The work I have done for Local 398 and my subsequent schooling at the National Labor College have changed me from an observer to an activist. Anne's songs are about issues that are important to me, and her voice is mesmerizing. I do consider Anne a friend. I have read her blogs, so I know much of the work she has done and the issues that she supports and many of the events in her life for the past few years. She also included links to do further investigation in many of the issues that are of mutual interest. On the flip side, she knows virtually nothing about me. That does not build a strong friendship. Yet it does build the labor movement. "Solidarity" is a beautiful word. It means that a folk singer in Pittsburg can encourage a bus driver in Boise to speak out at a public meeting. The result is that the transit board changes direction and the way people get to and from work every day is affected.

Today was a real "War on the Workers" kind of day. The transit authority had two meetings back to back about privatization and route changes to our transit system. I went to both. Standing in front of elected officials to testify is not a fun thing, especially if you plan to tell them something you know that they do not want to hear. It is even worse when your message is diametrically opposed to what the Executive Director and your General Manager are telling them. Things get a bit confrontational. This morning while I was preparing my presentation I sent a venting email to my favorite Hellraiser, Anne Feeney. Imagine my surprise when she responded about half an hour later! She offered encouragement and solidarity. It really meant a lot to me, because I know she has been fighting battles for workers for decades. I only represent about 60 workers, and my term of office is up the end of this year; she is willing to go wherever she is needed for whomever needs a voice. Her support really settled my nerves for the task ahead. I expect to be driving the crappiest buses in our fleet for the next few weeks. My back will be sore. My knees will ache. I may never get another bathroom break. Yeah...things went that well at the meetings. We have been sent out in cars to do paratransit routes, and in revenue serviece. We are forced to leave mothers with babes in their arms to wait in the cold and the snow to wait for another bus in half an hour because we don't have child restraints. The alternative is to transport them and create a public safety issue, and risk loosing our CDLs, therefore not just loss of employment, but future employment in the industry. One driver even quit over the issue. It is a very hostile work environment. I have no idea why our Executive Director is so pleased with this management company that she wants to increase their responsibility at this time. They are already putting our entire system at risk, and that is with just one employee, our General Manager. Tomorrow we meet with the current carrier of our retirement benefit services. I thought we were meeting about questions related to our recent arbitration victory, however, the GM told the Board that the purpose of the meeting is to discuss changes in going from public employees to private sector employees. I guess it will be a really long meeting. Oddly enough, he didn't mention the union's arbitration victory or the punative damages attatched to that battle. I haven't been given the figures yet, but it is going to be a BIG number. The Executive Director did say one thing at the meeting today that I agreed with. She said that our system suffers from "benign neglect". For the last several years we have had a sucessession of short term managers who didn't care enough to make a difference, or didn't stay long enough to make any changes for the better. She should know. She was one of them. The rest she personally hired, fired, or chased away. After the two meetings there was a union meeting. One of the Transit Authority Board members volunteered to come to meet the members. He did an excellent job of explaining the big picture of the political atmosphere and the complexity of the issues. He answered questions from everyone and really helped us see the local transit issue and lack of funding in a different light. He was very cordial and didn't talk down to us. It was extremely kind of him to come. I believe those who came learned a lot, and they now feel like there is a person on the board who is trying to address their concerns. The down side is that he believes we will be privatized by somebody in the near future, no matter what. The best we can hope for is to find the best choice possible for what I believe is a very bad transit decission. As Anne says, "Adalante!"

My computer skills are learned one obstacle at a time. If there is a hard way, I will own it. It's a gift that has blessed my existence. I was trying to download Anne Feeney's "free" download of Hey Ronny Reagan when I started this page. It was easy to download it to this site, but I didn't think it made it to my PC. The process froze my computer. Well, I found it today. It is in My Music file of My Documents. Silly me...I thought it would be in my Music Library under Windows Media Player so I could listen to the song. So, I stumbled accross it when I downloaded an out of print Anne Feeney CD from CD Baby in MP3 format. I was told it's easy to download MP3s. (Why do I always fall for that techie line?) The debit was accepted from my card. I clicked. I waited for the download. I noticed the geaneology line saying where the file would be located. As soon as it was done, I went there. That's where I found Ronnie Reagan. He was right by Anne's "zipped file." I forget the name of whatever I downloaded, but it is all songs written by Anne Feeney according to the sales script. I think I already have all of the songs on different CDs, but I thought it would be handy to have them grouped together to burn a CD for my car. So, I tried to open a file/play a song. No. I tried several approaches. Nada. It shut down the computer. I tried to restart it several times. I have no clue why it started this time, but not the other half dozen times I tried. The good news is I had some time to read a wee bit about Ireland in anticipation of my upcoming tour of Southwestern Ireland with Anne, and whomever else signs up. I'm almost finished with a book by Malachy McCourt called "The Claddagh Ring." Very interesting, but as near as I can tell from the map of Ireland tacked to my wall, Claddaugh is slightly north of where we will be visiting. Hard to tell, because I can't find Claddaugh on the map. (Damn small type!) It's alledgedly near Galway, on the coast of Galway Bay and near the River Corib. Oh well. McCourt is from Limerick, and I think I am going there. And I have enjoyed McCourt's books on tapes in the past; they are both entertaining and enlightening. And Irish; always Irish! The bad news is that I needed access to My Union Files to research an issue scheduled for Monday. Privatization...can you spell H-E-L-L-N-O!!! It's another War on the Workers! The redeeming grace is that the General Manager that we have now has done absolutely nothing in the last year to warrant the $11,000/month the Authority is paying for Management Services. Documenting that is pretty much just printing of files from arbitrations, grievances, and email correspondence. Building a timeline of catastrophes created by "the chosen one" shouldn't be too time consuming. I hope Jesus considers this task God's work and doesn't penalize me for doing it on the Sabbath. I could really use His help in organizing this into a memorable and convincing presentation to the Management Committee. Maybe He could exorcize the gnomes, trolls and gremlins from my computer while He's at it...Amen

Last night after work I read Anne's latest Traveler's Advisory. As most of us, she is hoping, praying and working for a more peaceful and prosperous 2008. It is a wonderful goal. I actually had a pretty good 2007, except for some health related issues. I was given a scholarship to attend the Grace Carroll Rocky Mountain Labor School. I graduated from NLC. My bus shelter project was well received, and the mural phase is progressing nicely. Local 398 won all of our arbitrations, with a lot of help from our wonderful IVP and Advocate, Ron Heintzmann. Our local is very small. There are about 60 members. Five arbitrations in one year is a strong indicator of contention. It is also very expensive. We had to do it. One arbitration was for eliminating a bargaining unit position without negotiating. If we allow one position to be eliminated, where would the Authority stop? One was for sub-contracting out bargaining unit work to non-union workers. If we allow the Authority to downsize us one piece at a time, how long can we survive? One was for unilaterally changing our retirement plan without negotiation, or even notification. Apperently the Authority didn't hear about that whole Enron thing. One was for bad faith bargaining. We had to drop that one because we eventually got a contract, sort of. They are implimenting it one piece at a time. We had to pay the Arbitrator two cancellation fees on that one. The three year Agreement was just starting it's second year when it got to the Fact Finding stage, which I consider the fourth arbitration. There was also one on the new Attendance Policy the Authority established. We reached an agreement before we met with the Arbitrator, but still had to pay his fee. A lot of homework goes into preparing for an Arbitration. I am ususally a wreck by the time the actual Arbitration begins. Even when the arbitration is dropped, the preparations still have to be made. That is why I am so grateful for Ron. He is tireless. Also, he is from Portland. He doesn't have to face these people the next day when it's time to report for work. That is the hard part for me. It is taxing to treat them with professional courtesy after listening to the lame excuses they offer in arbitration for contract violations. I sincerely hope we can start talking through issues face to face instead of before an Arbitrator in the near future. Regrettably, I haven't seen any indicators that the Authority feels the same way. Our tax dollars at work. They can't buy buses for public transportation, but they can spend millions on studies, legal fees, arbitrations, new offices in Meridian (where there are NO buses), etc. As bad as it seems sometimes, I am grateful that we have a union. This is a Right-To-Work state, so membership is voluntary. All but one member of the bargaining unit are members. It is a strong testament to the precept of solidarity. (Either that, or everyone is willing to pay $50 a month in dues so they can complain about what I should be doing to earn the $100/mont I get paid as President...perhaps a bit of both.) Doctors tell me the health issues I have are stress related. I have one more year of service as President. I hope to complete my obligation in 2008, then I am considering pursuit of a Masters Degree in Legal and Ethical Studies from University of Baltimore through the NLC week-in-residence program. Peace and prosperity in 2008, for Anne, for me, for all. It is a worthy goal. Solidarity!