WHO: ATU Local 689, Washington Interfaith Network (WIN), and Americans for Transit
WHAT:
Halloween Rally with Streetcar workers and their community allies, to call on the D.C. government to cut its contract with RATP, the French-owned private operator of the Streetcar, bring operations in-house to the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), and compensate the workforce fairly with competitive wages and affordable healthcare.
WHEN: Tuesday, October 31, 2017 at 10:00 a.m.
WHERE: D.C. Streetcar Headquarters, 2550 Benning Rd. NE, Washington D.C. 20002
WHY:
The members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689, who make up the front-
line workforce of the D.C. Streetcar, are fed up with the France-based private company
RATP short -changing its workers with uncompetitive wages and unaffordable healthcare.
“We already know that the D.C. Streetcar is a part of a larger initiative by DDOT to outsource public transit, gentrify communities in D.C., and further harm the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA),” says ATU Local 689 President Jackie Jeter. “We also know that the privatization of public transit does not work. The Streetcar with its cost overruns, broken commitments, blown deadlines, inept management decisions, and worker disputes is a perfect example of why privatization needs to be rejected for our transit systems in this region.”
Workers at the D.C. Streetcar voted overwhelmingly in March of 2016 to join ATU Local 689, which already represents more than 10,000 WMATA Metrorail, Metrobus, and MetroAccess active and retired employees in the region.
The successful vote came less than a week before D.C. Streetcar began carrying passengers and just months after the National Labor Relations Board ruled that private District Department of Transportation (DDOT) contractors RDMT/McDonald Transit and Midtown Group engaged in unlawful anti-union activity, including threatening, intimidating, and interrogating workers who wanted to join a union.
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WHAT:
Halloween Rally with Streetcar workers and their community allies, to call on the D.C. government to cut its contract with RATP, the French-owned private operator of the Streetcar, bring operations in-house to the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), and compensate the workforce fairly with competitive wages and affordable healthcare.
WHEN: Tuesday, October 31, 2017 at 10:00 a.m.
WHERE: D.C. Streetcar Headquarters, 2550 Benning Rd. NE, Washington D.C. 20002
WHY:
The members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689, who make up the front-
line workforce of the D.C. Streetcar, are fed up with the France-based private company
RATP short -changing its workers with uncompetitive wages and unaffordable healthcare.
“We already know that the D.C. Streetcar is a part of a larger initiative by DDOT to outsource public transit, gentrify communities in D.C., and further harm the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA),” says ATU Local 689 President Jackie Jeter. “We also know that the privatization of public transit does not work. The Streetcar with its cost overruns, broken commitments, blown deadlines, inept management decisions, and worker disputes is a perfect example of why privatization needs to be rejected for our transit systems in this region.”
Workers at the D.C. Streetcar voted overwhelmingly in March of 2016 to join ATU Local 689, which already represents more than 10,000 WMATA Metrorail, Metrobus, and MetroAccess active and retired employees in the region.
The successful vote came less than a week before D.C. Streetcar began carrying passengers and just months after the National Labor Relations Board ruled that private District Department of Transportation (DDOT) contractors RDMT/McDonald Transit and Midtown Group engaged in unlawful anti-union activity, including threatening, intimidating, and interrogating workers who wanted to join a union.
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