Labor & Employment Law

Transit Workers Urge Congress to Save Nation?s Transportation System

By James Parks

TWU President James Little addresses thousands of transportation union members at a Capitol Hill rally.

Transit workers, with the support of the two major transit unions?the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and the Transport Workers (TWU)?are asking Congress to allow local transit systems to redirect some stimulus dollars from capital improvements toward operating expenses.

Thousands of transit workers from across the nation, angry over cuts in service, rallied on Capitol Hill this week for greater and more flexible federal funding of the nation’s ailing public transportation system. More than 40 busloads of transit workers from New York and New Jersey traveled to Washington, D.C., for the rally. They were joined by representatives of civil rights and environmental groups also concerned about what service cuts mean to the public and the environment.

Local transit agencies are facing unprecedented service cuts. Last month, a report from the American Public Transportation Association showed that 59 percent of public transit systems have cut service or raised fares since Jan. 1, 2009, and many others are considering similar action. For example, Washington, D.C.’s Metro may scale back weekend service and New York City’s public school students are being told they will not be provided with bus and subway passes. In Atlanta, 30 percent of the surrounding area’s bus routes may be canceled.

The problem is that the federal government provides money for new buses, machinery and rails, but is doing little to help with crippling local operating costs.

ATU President Warren George told the crowd:

It makes no sense whatsoever to cut service when you have a young person trying to get to school for an education and can’t get a bus. It makes no sense to buy new buses and Metro cars and not service the ones you already have.

The workers also are seeking passage of another stimulus bill, which would provide $8.4 billion for public transit and allow 10 percent of that to be used for operations, union officials said.

TWU President James Little said the demands for funding are not just about unions, but about all American people who depend on public transportation and whose service is being cut all over the country: 

We have to say were not just speaking for transit workers, we’re speaking for America..

TWU, ATU, the Rainbow PUSH coalition, which is headed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and several community groups have formed an alliance to raise awareness of the need for transportation funding and American-made transit equipment. At the rally, the Rev. Jackson led the crowd in chanting:

 We can make the steel, we can lay the rail. We can make trains, make buses, go green, go transportation. Put America back to work.

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) reminded the workers that this issue isn’t just about them?the vital workers who keep our buses and trains running?it’s about the millions who depend on those buses and trains to get to work each day. With federal money to keep transit systems running,

[We] not only help save your jobs, we help you get other people to their jobs.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on April 29, 2010 (boomark / email).