The Future Is Bright, But We Have to Fight For It.
To the Sisters and Brothers of ATU Local 689,
For over a year we weren't able to meet in person due to a pandemic that took the lives of hundreds of transit workers across the country. I can not describe in words how happy I was to see your faces again at June and July's union meetings. It helps remind me why I do this work. Behind every grievance, every political fight to keep transit funding, every fight with WMATA to keep routes or restore service, and every contract negotiation is an actual person. The decisions we make as a union have real stakes to all of our members and their families.
I hope to always use these moments to speak with all of our members to ensure that they are fully informed on what is happening in our region. This isn't just an opportunity to share union business, but an opportunity to make sure that all of our members understand the bigger picture. In this edition of the newsletter, we've enclosed a story that should explain the scale of what we're fighting against.
Just a few days before this was published WMATA lost another five routes to the Fairfax Connector. In "Know Your History" we talk about how the entire reason WMATA was created was to avoid a fractured transit system for the nation's capital that wouldn't repeat the profit-driven mistakes that left transit workers and customers behind. We also discuss how from the very beginning of the WMATA system, there were attempts to chop it up, divide and pit the transit workers of this region against each other. I ask that every member reads this story and learns the history. Myself and former Local 689 Presidents Jackie Jeter and Mike Golash recorded a webinar livestream that is still on our Facebook page that helps explain the same story. Over the last year, we have worked hard at Local 689 to reverse that course and start to unite the transit workers of this region into one fighting union that can stand up to any transit system and demand fair wages and working conditions. I ask for your help in this fight as we try to reverse a half-century push towards privatization and devolution.
In Virginia, the labor movement came up short on election day. I'm proud to say that our union did everything we could to try to elect our endorsed candidates, including Jennifer Carroll Foy and Elizabeth Guzman, but many of our allies will no longer have their seats in Richmond year. Some of our most outspoken supporters of repealing anti-union "right to work" laws lost their primary elections to candidates that we don't have existing relationships with.
When I was out there canvassing voters, encouraging them to support our endorsed candidates, I was reminded by how much more work we need to do as a labor movement. Even though our union is able to move more volunteers than many of our allies, we still struggle to get large numbers of members out when we need them. Our union is only as strong as our ability to move our members to take action.
Additionally:
I've continued discussions with WMATA on a concrete process and timeline for bringing the Cinder Bed Road garage back in house. We won this as part of the 4-year Memorandum of Understanding during the 2019-2020 strike of Transdev workers. ATU Local 689 members currently at Cinder Bed Road will be hired at WMATA. We're still negotiating over the particular details.
In April, Transdev workers at the MetroAccess facility on Hubbard Road voted to approve a new contract through June 30th, 2022.
MV Transportation workers at the MetroAccess Call Center voted down a company proposal and pledged to fight for everything they deserve.
MV Transportation workers at Fastran recently approved a proposed 1-year extension to their contract that provided them with retention bonuses, minimum hour guarantees, and wage increases.
The WMATA collective bargaining agreement is still being negotiated. The Bargaining Committee received all member proposals, examined them, and submitted them to the Executive Board for review.
The future of Local 689 is bright, but only if we all fight for it!
In Solidarity,
