A waste of time.Byline: The Register-Guard When sideshows start stealing the spotlight in deadlocked labor negotiations, opportunities for a settlement slip farther away, and the public begins to lose interest. That's the last thing leaders of Lane Transit District A transit district or transit authority is a special-purpose district organized as either a corporation chartered by statute, or a government agency, created for the purpose of providing public transportation within a specific region. and Amalgamated Transit Union The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) is a labor union in the United States and Canada, representing workers in the transit system and other industries. The ATU was founded in 1892, and today has more than 180,000 members in more than 273 local unions in 46 states and 9 Local 757 want to see happen as they struggle to avert a strike that would strand thousands of daily riders and damage public support of LTD LTD 1 Laron-type dwarfism 2 Leukotriene D 3 Long-term depression, see there 4. Long-term disability . But the silly tiff over the time allotted al·lot tr.v. al·lot·ted, al·lot·ting, al·lots 1. To parcel out; distribute or apportion: allotting land to homesteaders; allot blame. 2. for bus safety inspections is just the kind of distraction that diverts energy from resolving the main issue: the cost of health care benefits. And it threatens public confidence in the bargaining process, something unions can ill afford. Hold on, hold on, we're not saying safety is a silly issue. We're saying the bickering bick·er intr.v. bick·ered, bick·er·ing, bick·ers 1. To engage in a petty, bad-tempered quarrel; squabble. See Synonyms at argue. 2. over five minutes is consuming an amount of time, money and energy wholly out of proportion to its true significance in comparison to the health insurance issue. This tango has two equally involved partners. LTD management and the ATU (ADSL Transceiver Unit) A device that provides ADSL modulation of the telephone line. The device at the telco side is the ATU-C (Central), which is a line card plugged into the DSLAM. both have allowed a housekeeping matter to get out of hand. The ATU should be embarrassed at having to stoop to a nuisance lawsuit to keep the heat on LTD management. The court system is overburdened enough without being forced to waste time on an argument that five additional minutes will make a life-or-death difference in the safety of the LTD bus fleet. The judge should dismiss this public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most ploy at the earliest opportunity. LTD management also should be red-faced at having been caught squeezing its workers for five measly measly said of beef, pork and mutton because infected meat has a speckled appearance thought to resemble measles (1) in humans. See also cysticercus. minutes currently devoted to safety, for crying out loud. LTD might have thought the $45,000 annual "savings" it got from shaving five minutes off the 15-minute bus inspections looked like cost-consci- ous management. Someone should have told the district it also looks to a lot of people like $45,000 was shifted from an existing safety program that largely benefited bus riders to some other unspecified expense. For 30 years, ending in 2000, LTD had a 10-minute bus safety inspection policy that served its riders well. Then it agreed in contract negotiations to a 15-minute inspection. Here are two truths: In the context of LTD's overall multimillion-dollar budget, $45,000 is a defensible investment in safety; and buses all over America are safely inspected every day in less than 15 minutes. How many thousands of dollars will be wasted on this trivial pursuit while thousands of riders wonder who's watching out for their real interests? |
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