What's he lookin' at? - Amalgamated Transit Union

Page 2 — Why FirstGroup MattersFirstGroup: Where Did they come From?Fast FactsFirstGroup CEO Moir Lockheadwas knighted by Queen Elizabethfor “services to British transport.”(But in life, “Sir Moir” is more likea backwards Robin Hood whorobs from the workers to give torich British stockholders!)tHe britisH are coMingFirst was born in Great Britain in the 1980s, when the British government decidedto contract out the nation’s public buses, subways and trams to private companies. MoirLockhead, the general manager of Aberdeen, Scotland’s bus and rail authority, arranged abuyout of his own transit system. One by one he acquired commuter rail, bus, subway andstreetcar networks all over the United Kingdom for his transportation empire. Looking fornew places to expand, he began casting his eyes on North America.Lockhead got his first stake by purchasing Ryder Public Transportation (parent of Ryder/ATE and Ryder Student Transportation) in 1999. He spent the decade scooping up mid-sizedschool bus, paratransit, and big bus firms across the United States and Canada – familiar nameslike Hertz Bus, Cardinal Coach and Coach USA Transit. But the big prize was still to come.laidlaw laid lowFirst wanted to be the biggest school bus and mass transit contractor in North America,and now there was only one thing in its way: the storied Canadian bus company Laidlaw andits nearly 50,000 buses and vans. In 2007 First made its move. The British multinationalshelled out $ 3.4 billion* for the Canadian-American transportation giant.Photo: Micha Theiner/CityAM/Rex USAIn a single transaction First had leaped to the top of the yellow-bus, studenttransportation heap and had drawn even with rivals like Veolia in mass transit andparatransit. First had even picked up Greyhound, another Laidlaw company,in the bargain. In the wake of the massive merger First would slashpayrolls by laying off thousands – from office managers to busoperators – to emerge as a highly profitable multinationalconglomerate with one foot back in Britain and the other inthe New World.2 IN TRANSIT www.atu.org