ATU members ratify contract that will ‘raise the bar’ at Metro Transit

February 20, 2024 by

(Union Advocate photo)

After authorizing their union leaders to call a strike last fall, Metro Transit workers voted over the weekend to ratify a new, three-year contract with the agency that will increase wages by 13%.

Mechanics are in for an even bigger wage hike, and a new shift differential will boost pay by up to 7% for workers who stay on the clock overnight – measures that union members and agency leaders hope will help Metro Transit attract and retain workers.

“We made our operators’ wages and, importantly, our mechanics’ wages more competitive,” Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1005 President David Stiggers said. “Metro Transit is trying to move their operations up to pre-COVID service levels, and to do that we need mechanics who are able to service these buses on a regular basis. Metro Transit had to raise the bar.”

Local 1005 represents about 2,000 Metro Transit workers, including custodians, office clerks, rail operators and others. Among members who participated in the contract vote, 82% supported ratification, according to the union.

The Met Council, which operates Metro Transit, must also vote to approve the agreement before it takes effect, retroactive to Aug. 1, 2023.

That’s when Local 1005’s previous contract with the agency expired. Negotiations between the two sides routinely stretch past contract expiration dates, but union members, by voting overwhelmingly to approve a strike in September, put management on notice that this round of talks would not be business as usual.

Between the strike vote and the final round of mediation Feb. 5, Metro Transit nearly doubled its proposed wage increases, from 3% in the first year and 2% in each of the following two years to 5.5% in the first year, 4.5% in the second and 3% in the third. The agency also agreed to bring mechanics’ wages closer to the industry standard.

“They moved a substantial amount,” Stiggers said of management’s proposals. “They moved far more than even what we maybe anticipated, looking at the contracts in the past. But I think they realized very quickly that what we were asking for was not pie in the sky, but actual pieces they needed to make the service run appropriately.”

Local 1005 also won expanded bereavement leave and language allowing part-time workers to get to the 30-hour threshold for employer-sponsored benefits without working a split shift.

Stiggers served as Local 1005’s vice president when contract negotiations began last spring. He was elected president in January after Ryan Timlin stepped down from the post.

“If you really want your employees and your agency to prosper, there has to be a mutual understanding between union and management, and we’re starting to develop a much better relationship in which our needs are being heard – and in this particular contract being met,” he said.

Local 1005 is among a group of public- and private-sector unions with contracts expiring this spring that have been meeting, planning and working in partnership to support each other in their contract campaigns – and potentially on the picket lines. While there won’t be a strike at Metro Transit, the union remains committed to showing its solidarity with the labor community.

“What we’re looking forward to now is helping our other union brothers and sisters in different unions secure great contracts as well, like the St. Paul teachers who just voted to authorize a strike and the janitors with SEIU,” Stiggers said. “We’re gearing up to support them.

“They too should be compensated appropriately. We all just want what we deserve.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Metro Transit workers vote to authorize strike

September 13, 2023 by

Members of ATU Local 1005 rallied in July outside a Met Council committee meeting in Minneapolis.

Metro Transit workers have voted overwhelmingly to authorize their union leaders to call a strike, holding firm to their demand for wages that outpace inflation.

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, which represents about 2,000 operators, mechanics and other workers in contract negotiations with the Twin Cities’ transit agency, reported that 94% of members who voted Sept. 10-11 supported strike authorization.

Bargaining began in March, and Local 1005 President Ryan Timlin said Metro Transit’s first offer left a lot of union members “very pissed off.” The agency has proposed a 3% raise in the contract’s first year and 2% in the following two years, according to Timlin.

That’s a similar wage package to the one approved by union members in their previous three-year contract, which expired July 31. But with inflation outpacing their earnings, transit workers are looking for more this time around.

Potential new hires are doing the same, Timlin said. The agency has struggled to hire despite plans to expand the local transit system, with Local 1005’s membership down about 400 since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“Their offer isn’t reaching market value,” Timlin said. “And among our members, there’s still a lot of anger about how management worked from home during COVID. Everything’s been building.”

Local 1005 members voted a year ago to make a “COLA +1” wage formula their union’s top priority at the bargaining table in 2023. Rather than fixed raises, the proposed contract language would determine wage increases by adding 1% to the current rate of inflation.

“It gives us a safety net in this uncertain economy,” Timlin said of the proposal. “But the members ultimately will have the final say.”

ATU’s bargaining team is also seeking a higher shift differential for workers clocking overnight hours, as well as new health and safety protections for operators exposed to drug use on the transit line or dangerous weather during mid-route shift changes.

“Drivers who do relief, they go to a specific bus stop and wait until the bus pulls up to take it over,” Timlin explained. “We’re trying to get management to agree to provide a vehicle they can drive between Metro Transit garages and those relief points, to reduce any safety issues that might pop up.”

Local 1005 and Metro Transit have bargaining sessions scheduled Sept. 22 and Oct. 5.

Before a strike could begin, the two sides would have to try mediation. The union must also give Metro Transit 10 days’ notice of any work stoppage.

Metro Transit workers last went on strike in 2004, shutting down bus service in the Twin Cities for about six weeks.

Both locally and nationally, unions are taking strike votes to show employers that their bargaining teams have the support of rank-and-file members – and to pressure management to meet the union’s demands. Timlin said ATU members “have been paying attention” to historic contract gains made by Teamsters at UPS and other unions.

“Our message to Metro Transit is let’s get back to the table and really start negotiating,” Timlin said.

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Workers turn out for a say in Metro Transit’s safety plan

February 10, 2023 by

Transit workers packed the Feb. 8 Met Council meeting.

Metro Transit bus and train operators packed Met Council chambers Feb. 8, demanding input into the agency’s plan to improve safety across the local transit system.

Council members were poised to approve that plan, finalized by Metro Transit in December, but they voted 7-5 to postpone any action for at least one week, giving management and union representatives time to chart a course for better collaboration moving forward.

“This huge turnout really proves an interest from workers to tell their side of the story,” Council Member Abdirahman Muse said.

The operators’ union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, was not involved in drafting the safety plan despite a new federal requirement – part of the bipartisan infrastructure law passed in 2021 – that transit systems create labor-management safety committees to sign off on their plans.

Union leaders and council members acknowledged the newly formed committee got off to a “rocky start” last year, and it put the process at risk of missing a Dec. 31 deadline with the Federal Transit Administration.

ATU representatives offered to approach the FTA jointly with Metro Transit and request an extension, Local 1005 member Ron Kammueller said, so that frontline workers could have a voice in the safety plan.

“They declined and went to the FTA behind our backs unilaterally,” Kammueller said before the council meeting. “They claim the FTA granted them approval to mark this plan as approved by the (labor-management) committee. We’re here to say the process needs to back up and keep labor and management on equal footing.”

Council Member Deb Barber, chair of the council’s transportation committee, said the agency needed a plan on the books by the deadline to avoid risking federal funding. But she also emphasized that the plan is a “living document” and, at minimum, must be updated annually with input from the labor-management committee.

“Our goal and hope is that this is a continually updated document done in collaboration between Metro Transit and ATU,” Barber said. “This isn’t meant to be the end of the story; this is the start.”

Getting buy-in from the union won’t be an issue moving forward, Local 1005 Recording Secretary Miriam Wynn said. Safety is a growing concern among transit workers, over 70 of whom showed up for the Wednesday-night meeting in downtown St. Paul.

“We have facility workers who are just in the line of duty, trying to clean the platforms, and they are being held at gunpoint, being held at knifepoint,” she said. “It’s really bad out there.”

The FTA issued a special directive to Metro Transit last October in response to increasing safety risks faced by transit workers. The directive noted that Metro Transit is one of nine agencies nationwide that accounted for 79% of all transit worker assaults reported to the National Transit Database between 2016 and 2021, “with no clear downward trend in assaults” over that period.

But the safety plan Metro Transit produced last year lacked the sweeping changes needed to stem those increasing risks to workers and riders, Wynn said.

That’s why union members need a seat at the table.

“It is our lives, we’re the frontline workers, and there are things that should be in this plan – like ways to mitigate assaults, there’s nothing in there that speaks to that,” Wynn said. “Not even to speak to the drug use on the trains and on the buses that are affecting our operators? Those are the things that we want to see in this plan.”

Met Council Member Raymond Zeran, former political director of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 292, said he hoped the urgency ATU members brought to the council meeting carries over to the labor-management committee’s efforts to settle on a safety plan “that everyone’s buying into.”

“Pack your lunch,” he told union members. “Get this done.”

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Metro Transit workers reject management’s ‘best and final’ offer

March 30, 2021 by

Members of ATU Local 1005 gather outside contract talks with Metro Transit.

Members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 voted May 17 to reject Metro Transit’s “best and final offer.”

The vote, in which 72% opposed the deal, shows “the members want management to get to the table and get this finished,” Ryan Timlin, Local 1005 president, said.

The union planned to request additional bargaining dates.

Local 1005 represents over 2,300 Metro Transit workers in talks with Metro Transit. The two sides have agreed to a temporary extension of their previous agreement, which expired Aug. 1, 2020, as negotiations continue.

But frustration with the agency’s plodding approach at the bargaining table – while transit workers continue to risk exposure to the virus – is at a tipping point among union members, bus operator Janea Scott said.

“We have put our families and our friends and ourselves at risk during COVID,” Scott said. “I feel like Metro Transit and the Met Council really don’t care about people like me out here working every day.”

ATU members voted overwhelmingly in September to authorize their bargaining team to call a strike.

Since then, they have been pushing Gov. Tim Walz and the Metropolitan Council, which oversees Metro Transit, for answers about how the agency’s COVID-relief windfall is being used to protect frontline workers.

Metro Transit’s latest offer included wage increases of 2 percent in the first year, 2 percent in the second year and 2.5 percent in the third and final year.

But management has refused to discuss the union’s list of about 20 non-cost items, including several safety issues. Timlin called that approach “infuriating,” given the risks workers face during the pandemic.

In addition, Metro Transit has been unwilling to address hazard pay for workers’ service through the pandemic.

“Those were the things that really pushed a ‘no’ vote,” Timlin said. To get a breakthrough in the negotiations, he added, “we might have to do some actions. We’ll see.”

– Updated May 25, 2021, to include reporting by the Minneapolis Labor Review.

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With talks stuck in low gear, Metro Transit workers seek public support

December 17, 2020 by

Members of ATU Local 1005 demonstrated outside as their bargaining team met with Metro Transit in October. The action succeeded in pushing the agency off its demand for a one-year contract with no wage increases. (ATU photo)

Members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 have authorized a strike, held informational picketing and, most recently, petitioned the governor – all in an effort to shift their contract talks with Metro Transit into higher gear.

The union of 2,350 transit operators and mechanics entered bargaining this summer looking to address health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those discussions have yet to take place, Local 1005 President Ryan Timlin said, despite the union’s pressure campaign.

“The actions we’ve done have had an effect,” Timlin said. “We’ve seen a little bit of movement, but not nearly enough, in our opinion. The Met Council and Metro Transit are still dragging their feet.”

It’s not unusual for contract talks at Metro Transit – or any public agency – to progress at a deliberate pace. But Local 1005 members say this round of talks warrants greater urgency.

Transit workers are seeking clear language ensuring access to personal protective equipment and hand sanitizer at Metro Transit facilities. They want language ensuring paid leave for workers who come into contact with the coronavirus on the job.

Union members want hazard pay, too.

In a letter to Gov. Tim Walz sent Dec. 7, Timlin called transit operators “Minnesota’s forgotten front-line workers,” even though many essential workers rely on public transit to get to and from their jobs.

Between boarding stops, Timlin said, the air inside Metro Transit buses is trapped and recirculated from the back of the bus to the front. Light-rail trains have slightly better airflow.

Sharing confined, modular spaces with the public has almost certainly put transit operators at high risk for contracting the coronavirus.

“We’ve had quite a few of our members get COVID,” Timlin said. “We haven’t had a death yet. We’ve been lucky. But I use the word ‘yet’ because I fear it’s going to happen down the road with how susceptible the workforce is.”

ATU members voted overwhelmingly in September to authorize their bargaining team to call a strike. At that time, Metro Transit was demanding a one-year contract with no wage increases or hazard pay, rather than the normal two- or three-year deal.

While the pandemic has reduced fare revenue, Metro Transit is partially funded by a tax on new car sales, which have increased during the pandemic. The Met Council, which oversees the agency, also has had access to pandemic-relief funds through the CARES Act.

Metro Transit management changed its tune Oct. 26 and agreed to discuss a longer-term contract, after transit workers and their supporters rallied outside the Bureau of Mediation Services offices in St. Paul, where representatives of the two sides were meeting.

Since then, the union has been ramping up public pressure on Metro Transit’s general manager, Wes Kooistra, as well as members of the Met Council. The union says it has delivered over 10,000 emails to Met Council members and 500 phone calls. (Click here to send an email supporting Metro Transit workers.)

But their concerns have fallen on deaf ears.

“We are not eager to strike, but we are preparing for that eventuality, in the name of safety and justice,” Timlin wrote in his letter seeking Walz’s help. “We need someone to intervene, to compel Metropolitan Council members to do their jobs with the same vigor we do our own.”

The governor’s office acknowledged the letter, Timlin said, and was working to set up a meeting.

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Transit operators, riders urge Dayton to stand strong against cuts

May 18, 2017 by

Doni Jones, a Metro Transit operator and ATU Local 1005 steward, speaks at a rally in support of transit funding.

Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed a transportation bill Monday that would have slashed funding for Metro Transit bus and rail services by $17.5 million over the next two years.

Transit riders and operators cheered the governor’s veto at a rally Tuesday outside the Capitol, urging Dayton to continue standing firm against service cuts and fare hikes.

Doni Jones, a steward for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, said cuts proposed by Republican majorities in the Legislature would “devastate” the 3,000 Metro Transit employees who make up the union’s membership. Part-time employees would be laid off, he said, and full-time workers would see hours reduced.

In a letter to Republican leaders that accompanied his veto, Dayton said he would not sign a transportation bill that includes cuts to Metro Transit.

“Our transit system is vital to the economic health and competitiveness of the metro region and the state as a whole,” Dayton said, adding that 80 percent of people who access Metro Transit services are traveling to and from work or school.

Dayton told Republican leaders: “Your failure to adequately fund our transit system will have real life consequences for our seniors, students, low-income individuals and individuals with disabilities.”

Many of those people joined the rally yesterday, a scene Jones described as a “beautiful thing.”

“We see these people all the time,” he said. “We’re all in this together.”

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Transit riders, drivers team up to fight proposed cuts, fare hikes

April 19, 2017 by

A rally in Leif Erickson Park urged investments – not cuts – in transit services statewide.

Transit riders and operators rallied at the Capitol light rail station in St. Paul yesterday, looking to derail House Republicans’ plan to cut funding for bus, rail and Metro Mobility services by $122 million over the next two years.

The Metropolitan Council, which operates Metro Transit and Metro Mobility, has warned the budget proposal would force both fare increases and a reduction in service by as much as 40 percent.

The prospect of paying more for less frequent bus and rail service didn’t sit well with more than 150 riders who joined the rally. One by one, they stepped up to the podium to describe the role transit plays in their lives – whether it’s getting to work or school, or simply getting around town.

“These drastic cuts would have a devastating impact on the elderly, low-income workers, communities of color, people with disabilities and all who are dependent upon transit to get around,” Jessica Treat, chair of the Transportation Forward campaign, said. “This is not what Minnesota needs.”

In addition to steep service cuts and fare hikes, the House proposal would mean layoffs for Metro Transit operators and maintenance staff, who are members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005.

ATU Local 1005 President Mark Lawson

Mark Lawson, president of the local, warned job losses would impact communities of color and immigrant communities at a time when the state is trying to address troubling income disparities between white workers and workers of color. Metro Transit and Local 1005 have partnered in recent years to recruit new workers from neighborhoods Metro Transit serves, Lawson said.

“The workforce is looking more and more like our riders, which is a good thing,” Lawson said. “And did I mention these are union jobs with good pay, good benefits?”

Operators and riders also pointed to a Met Council report showing the service targeted by lawmakers for especially steep cuts – light rail – operates at the lowest public subsidy, about $1.84 per passenger, compared with more than $7 per passenger for bus services from Shakopee and Prior Lake.

“Why are they trying to get rid of the workforce that provides the best value for the Minnesota taxpayers?” Lawson asked.

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Metro Transit workers vote to accept contract proposal

May 10, 2016 by

atu_newlogo-01In balloting held Sunday and Monday, Metro Transit workers accepted a proposed two-year contract with annual wage increases of 2.25 percent.

The contract, which covers about 2,400 members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, still must be approved by the Met Council before taking effect. The council is expected to consider the contract at its May 25 meeting.

“I don’t expect that to be anything more than a formality,” Local 1005 President Mark Lawson said.

Once finalized, the contract will provide Metro Transit operators and mechanics with raises retroactive to Aug. 1, 2015 – and another 2.25 percent bump in August 2016. Some workers will see larger increases as a result of changes in job classifications included in the contract.

Those terms represent an improvement on the “final offer” rejected by Local 1005 members in a near-unanimous vote in February. This time around, about 72 percent of voting members approved of the tentative agreement.

Other provisions of the pending contract include:

  • Expansion of night-shift differential – a 50-cent boost in hourly pay between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. – to all workers in the bargaining unit.
  • Agreement to revisit and potentially amend a 25-year-old list of tools mechanics are required to buy out of their own pockets.
  • Continued health care cost sharing at “reasonable” rates, according to Lawson.

“The vast majority of members feel this is a contract they can live with and move on with,” Lawson said. “Because it’s a two-year deal, we’re going to be starting to work on the next contract, getting our proposals ready, by the end of this year.

“So we get a breather, and then we get to start all over again.”

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An engine for economic growth, Green Line opens to big crowds

June 20, 2014 by
City, county, state and federal funding made the Green Line a reality, and elected officials from all four levels of government helped cut the ribbon at the Green Line's Opening Day celebration outside Union Depot. (UA photo by Mike Weerts)

City, county, state and federal funding made the Green Line a reality, and elected officials from all four levels of government helped cut the ribbon at the Green Line’s Opening Day celebration outside Union Depot. (UA photo by Mike Weerts)

Minnesotans celebrated the opening of Metro Transit’s Green Line with ribbon-cuttings, neighborhood-centric events and more than 107,000 free rides June 14-15. But there was more to celebrate than the long-anticipated arrival of a sleek, new transit option between the Twin Cities’ downtown areas.

Jobs – and plenty of them – were also reason to celebrate.

Construction of the $957 million light-rail line, with 9.8 miles of new track and 18 new stations, created more than 5,500 construction jobs, and payroll expenses for the project exceeded $252 million. Additionally, Metro Transit hired 200 operators and maintenance workers for the Green Line, according to the Metropolitan Council.

The project created work for members of Building Trades unions during an otherwise lean period for the construction industry, as investment capital dried up and development ground to a halt following the financial collapse of 2008.

“It was a blessing that it happened during a time when the construction industry saw unemployment at levels it hasn’t seen since the Great Depression,” Harry Melander, president of the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council, said.

But job creation isn’t confined to the Green Line’s rear-view mirror.

Riders looking out the train’s windows are likely to see scaffolding, cranes and other heavy equipment, signs of the private development that has been popping up along the Central Corridor since the Green Line since got the green light five years ago.

The Met Council predicts employment along the line will grow by more than 90,000 jobs over the next 16 years. Already, more than 100 projects have been built, are under construction or are in the planning phase along the Green Line. Together, the developments account for more than $2.5 billion in job-creating private investments.

“The development we’ve seen so far only marks the beginning of new opportunities in the Central Corridor,” Met Council Chair Sue Haigh said. “For decades to come, the Green Line will be a catalyst for employment and economic growth along its 11-mile route.”

In that regard the Green Line is an example of the “ripple effect” that makes transit a particularly effective public investment. Every dollar a community invests in public transportation brings approximately $4 in economic returns, according to the American Public Transit Association.

The nonpartisan organization also found that, in a study conducted between 2006 and 2011, residential property values performed 42 percent better, on average, if they were located near public transportation.

The Green Line also provided training opportunities that helped introduce young workers to careers in the Building Trades.

The Laborers District Council of Minnesota and North Dakota, for example, integrated a new, eight-hour course, “Introduction to Light Rail Construction,” into the curriculum at its Lino Lakes-based training center. Todd Pufahl, council president, said the $250,000 investment ensures the union and its contractors are ready to tackle transit investments coming down the pike.

“The Green Line will do great things for commuters and the communities it runs through,” said Pufahl. “We are also anxious and ready to get going on the Southwest Corridor project. Our skilled Construction Craft Laborers are skilled and ready to help improve quality of life and transportation choices for all of us.”

Abby Tomasek wore a cardboard light-rail costume to the ribbon cutting. She and other activists used the event as an opportunity to sign transit-users up for MoveMN, an advocacy group pushing broad investments in the state's transportation infrastructure.

Abby Tomasek wore a cardboard light-rail costume to the ribbon cutting. She and other activists used the event as an opportunity to sign transit-users up for MoveMN, an advocacy group pushing broad investments in the state’s transportation infrastructure.

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Transit workers enlist riders in fight for better public transportation

May 20, 2014 by
Metro Transit GM Brian Lamb speaks during the "Transit Tuesday" rally, which took place next to the Government Plaza light-rail stop.

Metro Transit GM Brian Lamb speaks during the “Transit Tuesday” rally, staged next to the Government Plaza light-rail stop.

It’s Transit Action Month nationwide, and Metro Transit workers and riders took action today downtown Minneapolis, calling for “more, better and safer public transit” during a lunchtime rally outside the Hennepin County Government Center.

Coordinated by Local 1005 of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), the “Transit Tuesday” event drummed up support for a bipartisan bill making its way through Congress that would reauthorize federal funding for the nation’s highways and mass transit systems.

Brian Lamb, general manager of Metro Transit, called the transportation bill a key source of funding as his organization scrambles to meet the transit needs of a region expected to see its population grow by 850,000 in the next 25 years.

web.ATUrally-signs“We need to you to contact your representatives and let them know how important this is,” Lamb urged people at the rally. “Help them to know how strong the support for this is back home.”

Transit Action Month events nationwide are part of the ATU’s effort to enlist riders and other transit advocates in the political struggle for increased transit investment.

“We want our riders to know we stand with them in the fight for more, better and safer public transit,” Local 1005 Vice President Dorothy Maki said. “Together we can ensure that our voices are heard and elected officials understand that we want them to stand up for transit.”

[Tell your representatives in Congress you support more funding for public transit. Click here to find the phone number for your representatives in the House and Senate.]

The partnership between transit operators and riders is critical at the state level, as well as in Congress. Transit advocates’ efforts to secure more stable funding from the State of Minnesota, including a three-fourth cent sales tax dedicated to transit, came up short in both the 2013 and 2014 legislative sessions.

Reliable, efficient transit service is key to ensuring economic development benefits all communities, said Robert Lilligren, who chairs the Native American Community Development Institute. Living in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis, Lilligren said the first question many of his neighbors ask when they see an employment opportunity is whether it’s accessible by bus.

“If the answer is no, then we are not only robbing that individual of a job or training opportunity, but we are robbing that business of a potential employee,” Lilligren said.

Many speakers at the “Transit Tuesday” rally urged riders and operators to make transit funding an issue during the 2014 election season, which will determine the makeup of the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Last year Metro Transit provided 81 million rides – each one “an opportunity for connecting drivers and riders to advocate for better transit,” said Jennifer Munt, a member of the Met Council, which operates Metro Transit.

“If we don’t make transit a campaign issue in 2014, it won’t be on the agenda come 2015,” added Margaret Donahoe, director of the Minnesota Transportation Alliance.

There were some victories for public transit at the Capitol in 2014, Rep. Frank Hornstein said. The DFLer from Minneapolis pointed to a $500,000 investment in transit shelters and creation of a rapid-transit line along Snelling Avenue in St. Paul.

“With your organizing, we’re going to do even better in 2015,” Hornstein said.

“Bus drivers every day connect people to work, to school, to their dreams. They connect people to a better life. There is dignity in that work," Met Council Member Jennifer Munt said. Munt also works as Communications Director for AFSCME Council 5.

“Bus drivers every day connect people to work, to school, to their dreams. They connect people to a better life. There is dignity in that work,” Met Council Member Jennifer Munt said. Munt also works as Communications Director for AFSCME Council 5.

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