Press Release: DC Circulator Bus Drivers Working for RATP Dev On Strike Tomorrow, May 3rd!
Silver Spring, MD – Fed up with a lack of progress in contract talks and unfair labor practices, the bus drivers for the DC Circulator, employed by RATP Dev, will be on strike tomorrow morning, Tuesday, May 3rd and will stay out until an agreement is reached.
“RATP Dev left us with no other options but to walk off the job at the DC Circulator,” said ATU Local 689 President Raymond Jackson. “We encourage commuters to seek other forms of public transportation throughout the city. After months of negotiations, it has become clear that RATP Dev has been negotiating in bad faith, committing multiple unfair labor practice (ULP) violations in the process.”
On May 1st, the company sent Local 689 a “final offer” that threatened to substitute our members with subcontractors, eliminated worker’s federal rights under the Family & Medical Leave Act, and proposed undermining the concept of progressive discipline. In the same proposal, the company made its first real movement on wages in nearly two months of bargaining but still failed to adequately address years of underpayment and inflation. The Local says they cannot and would never accept the company’s proposals like these and the company knows this.
“This company will only realize the true value of its workforce when they don’t show up to work,” Jackson continued. “RATP Dev can’t drive these buses. McMahon Berger, their union busting law firm, can’t drive these buses. Our members know that they’re the ones that help keep this region moving.”
The Local says RATP Dev is going to try to pit working people in this region against each other. To those that will be impacted, there is a very simple way to help hold RATP Dev accountable and end this strike as fast as possible. The Local is encouraging the public to call their elected officials and tell them to pressure RATP Dev to accept the union’s proposals and get the DC Circulator up and running again.
“Our Union and our members at Local 689 are fed up with the disrespect RATP Dev has shown them. We’ve been down this road before in the DC area with strikes. Our members will again stand strong and united,” said ATU International President John Costa. “It’s time for the company to get back to the table to give these frontline bus operators, who have been risking their lives to keep their communities moving since the pandemic began, a contract that treats them like the heroes they are.”
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Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 has more than 15,000 members and retirees performing occupations within the many skilled transportation crafts for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), MetroAccess, DASH, and the DC Circulator and Streetcar among others. A member of the Amalgamated Transit Union (AFL-CIO/CLC), the largest labor organization representing transit workers in the United States and Canada, Local 689 was established on January 19, 1916. For more information please visit our website at atulocal689.org.
