The Maryland Department of Transportation’s draft five-year budget provides only an average of $326 million per year for critical repair needs, while the agency’s own Capital Needs Inventory called for an average of $462 million per year, the Democratic officials said.
Winnipeg Free Press By: Joyanne Pursaga | Posted: 7:00 PM CST Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021
Some essential City of Winnipeg workers and their unions are asking for priority spots on the province’s COVID-19 vaccination list.
Some essential City of Winnipeg workers and their unions are asking for priority spots on the province’s COVID-19 vaccination list. Being able to get the vaccination, get that priority, would give us another step to having a safe workplace. We’re enclosed in a tight space in the bus, said one Transit driver, who asked not to be named.
The city should lobby the province for public transit operators to become a priority immunization group, since their daily work puts them in close proximity to the public, the driver said Thursday adding front-line health-care workers, including firefighters and paramedics, and seniors should get their shots first.
Bus driver becomes 16th NJ Transit employee to die from COVID-19
Updated Dec 30, 2020;
Eduardo Lluberes, a bus driver from Jersey City, became the latest NJ Transit employee whose life was claimed by the coronavirus.
Gov. Phil Murphy announced the latest death during his coronavirus press briefing Wednesday afternoon. Lluberes, 49, died on Dec. 22 and leaves two sons, the governor said.
He worked as a full-time bus driver for NJ Transit for 16 years, joining the agency in September 2004. The ranks of bus drivers have been the hardest hit during the pandemic, with seven bus drivers, one union official and a mechanic claimed by COVID-19.
Bradshaw attributes the decline to the introduction of plexiglass shields. Even so, he said the general stress of the pandemic has heightened safety concerns for drivers.
Some difficult confrontations with passengers have happened for drivers this year when they stopped people from boarding a bus without a mask.
Bradshaw said operators are expected to allow passengers without masks to board, because they shouldn t be tasked with enforcement. It s a setup for confrontation. It would set up for more assaults. We don t need that. We don t want that, Bradshaw said. It definitely rattled me
Dayna Burnell, a resident in Edmonton s Whyte Avenue area said a series of recent encounters has made riding the bus feel unsafe.
Alabama warehouse workers take on Amazon
Amazon workers at a Bessemer, Ala., warehouse took a big step toward organizing the first union ever in that behemoth company, when the National Labor Relations Board green-lighted their request for a unionization vote. Bessemer is a former steel-producing city adjoining Birmingham.
On Dec. 18 the NLRB affirmed it was “administratively satisfied that there is a sufficient showing of interest to proceed,” in a statement by Terry D. Combs, assistant director for the agency’s Atlanta region.
The BAmazon union, as local organizers dubbed it, goes forward with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The RWDSU has a strong Southern membership, with 6,000 in the Mid-South Council based in Birmingham.