Show: Labor Express for 6-14-2020, Erek Slater on ATU solidarity with Black Lives Matter and CTA management’s efforts to silence that solidarity, and voices from the uprising.

This is the full 6-14-2020 episode of the Labor Express Radio program.

On this episode of Labor Express Radio, REBELLION 2020!: Uprisings against racism and police brutality erupt across the nation in response to the murder of yet another Black man, George Floyd at the hands of yet another White cop, Derek Chauvin.  But this time the African-American community and its allies have come out into the streets day after day, week after week, across the nation to say enough is enough.  And this time, at least one union, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), is doing more than just issuing a statement of support for the protesters.  They are making their solidarity real and concrete by telling their members that the union has their backs if the drivers refuse to be conscripted by the police into shuttling them to protest locations and taking arrested protesters to detention facilities.  But as CTA bus driver and elected Executive Board member of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 241 Erek Slater will tell you, at least in Chicago, the ATU International presidents statement means little to CTA management who is willing to punish bus drivers who refuse to cooperate with police in regards to the demonstrations.  Drivers have faced harassment and intimidation, and in the case of Slater, suspension, for simply discussing the issue with his co-workers.

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