News and Updates

Center Convenes Committees Addressing Training & Recruitment for the Public Transportation Industry

Posted May 2013

This week, the Center is convening three industry working groups in Silver Spring, MD to address the major challenges facing transit nationally:
• Signals Training Consortium
• Career Pathways/Career Ladders Committee
• Rail Vehicle Committee

These groups also came together to coordinate efforts and strategize on furthering the broader mission of strengthening public transportation occupations through systems for expanding the pipeline for qualified new recruits and quality training within the public transportation industry.  During the open panel discussion each group is reporting out on their individual efforts. 

Join the Center at the APTA Rail Conference

Posted May 2013

On Tuesday June 4, 2013 the Center will be hosting a session at the APTA rail conference on Standards-Based Training Partnerships for Frontline Employees.  The session will highlight its efforts in national training consortia for transit’s rail technicians who maintain signals and elevators and escalators, with pending efforts for rail vehicle and traction power technicians.

Signals Training Consortium Steering Committee Works w/Center to Prepare for Project Kick-off

Posted May 2013

Last Friday, Center staff met with Signals Training Consortium Co-chairs Jim Lindsay President of ATU Local 1277 in Los Angeles and Michael Monastero former Chief Engineering Officer of the Communications & Signals Department at SEPTA to prepare for the consortium’s kick-off meeting in Silver Spring, MD at the end of the month.  Members of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalman and TWU Local 234 also joined the meeting.

TWU Local 234, SEPTA, Community Work to Prevent Violence in Public Transit

Posted May 2013

TWU Local 234 held a groundbreaking conference last week as part of their ongoing campaign to stop violence on public transit. The April 25 event brought together almost 200 agency and union leaders, top law enforcement, elected officials, community activists and transit workers. The day kicked off with harrowing videos and testimony by bus operator victims of assault, ranging from spitting through sexual touching to brutal force. One repeated beating left the operator with a broken nose and gratefully unable to remember what happened, even after viewing the attack on the bus security camera tape. (His assailant will be in jail for only 16 months).

Good Jobs Green Jobs Conf. 2013: Public Trans. Jobs are Finally Being Recognized as Being Green

Posted April 2013

For years now the Center has been identifying jobs in public transportation as green jobs which not only help the environment but also provide the livable wage and strong benefits associated with strong union presence.  In previous years, the Good Jobs Green Jobs conference held by the Blue-Green Alliance - an organization that brings together unions from all over the country with environmental advocates like the Sierra Club - also touched on how public transportation helped to green our country.