Washington, D.C., transportation workers fight to save union jobs

On Feb. 19, Metro workers and their allies protested and testified at a hearing of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority. WMATA had announced they have a deficit of $154 million, and warned that it may be necessary to shut down some bus routes and limit service for certain metro train lines among other severe cutbacks.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority wants transit workers pay for the budget deficit.

Metro has also proposed handing over some bus routes to local bus services in surrounding counties and to the D.C. Circulator bus service, which serves the downtown shopping districts.

The Feb. 19 hearing focused on the handing over of a bus line to the D.C. Circulator. Circulator drivers make significantly less money and have fewer benefits than their Metrobus counterparts. Metrobus drivers and other Metro workers as well as their community allies attended the meeting to speak against the handover and in favor of better-paid union jobs for all bus drivers. Workers also opposed service cutbacks as a way to make up the deficit.

There have been no actual layoffs at Metro since the mid-1990s because of the militant struggle of the predominately Black workforce. Drivers and train operators stated at the hearing that the handover of even a single bus line to a company with lower pay and benefits would be the beginning of an attack on the standard of living for all Metro employees.

Eugene Puryear spoke for the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), calling on the Metro board to create good-paying jobs and provide affordable, reliable public transportation. Puryear pointed out that 10 hours worth of funding for the Iraq war could cover Metro’s deficit.

Puryear also called on the Metro Board to support the mobilization of Washington-area residents for the March 21 March on the Pentagon to demand money for jobs, education and transportation, not war and occupation. His statement was warmly received by Metro workers, who agreed with the critical need to resist the attacks on working people both at home and abroad.

About two– dozen workers and community members held a picket line in front of the hearing for 45 minutes, chanting, “They say cutbacks, we say fight back!” and “The workers, united, will never be defeated!”

Metro workers are continuing to organize to fight against any cutbacks, layoffs and attacks targeting union jobs. Their struggle is part and parcel of the struggle of workers in Washington, D.C., and around the country who are being forced to pay for the ravages of the capitalist economic crisis.