Local News

Hello. My name is Abasi Kitt. I’m currently a Transit Operator at the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA). During my first career with this company, I got an approval letter in early November 2009 and started training on November 30, 2009 as a city bus driver. By January 2010 I had completed training and had my own rout as a part-time operator. On September 20, 2010 I was a full-time operator. Driving city bus was and still is the best job that I ever had. I get to do something that I’m good at and get to help the community as well by shuttling people who need a ride to where they need to go.

On February 10, 2011 I took a Fire Fighter exam and scored 100%. Although I really liked my current job I had a feeling that I could better serve my community by being a firefighter. In the spring of 2013, the City of Rochester Fire Department contacted me about joining the summer recruit class of 2013. What that meant was that I would be a Conditional Firefighter on the condition that I passed a roughly six month academy class that had two parts. The first part being a medical because Rochester firefighters are now required to be emergency medical technicians (EMTs). The second part was regular firefighter stuff. Any how I knew that I had to get my affairs in order with my job at Regional Transit Service (RTS). At the time of my decision RTS was still under a contract book effective from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2014. I believe we are still under that contract currently. On page 11, article 17 the last sentence said: “Employees off on a leave of absence shall not take any other employment without the consent of the Company and the Union." Upon understanding that I went to talk with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 282 President Jacques Chapman in the spring of 2013. I told him that I wanted to take a leave of absence to join the firefighter academy. He (Jacques Chapman) told me that I should lie to the company. He told me to tell the company that I was taking a leave for another reason. I didn’t agree with that. Later on that spring of 2013 I saw Janet P. Snyder who is the Director of Labor Relations at RTS. I told her about my ambitions to become a firefighter and requested to have a leave of absence. She said that she would get back to me. About a week later my direct manager; the Director of RTS Bus Operations Michael Capadano said that I have about two weeks to write him a resignation letter if I wanted to join the firefighter academy. So with a heavy heart I wrote my letter of resignation on June 23, 2013. My resignation was accepted July 3, 2013 and my last day of work was July 5, 2013.