Press Release: Tentative 4-year Labor Deal Reached on Broad Range of Issues
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Brian Wivell
Email: bwivell@atu689.org
(Forestville, MD) December 10th, 2019 – In a major development, a tentative agreement on wages and benefits was reached today between Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 and Metro that would create incentives for better customer service, enable Metro to live within its legally-required three-percent subsidy growth cap, and create a path to bring in house work performed at Cinder Bed Road bus garage and on the Silver Line.
The new agreement would provide four years of certainty to Metro employees and customers after the current contract expires on June 30, 2020. The terms must be ratified by union members and approved by Metro’s Board of Directors.
While the agreement has benefits for both labor and management, economic details are being withheld to allow ATU Local 689 President Raymond Jackson time to inform union members and give General Manager & CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld an opportunity to brief the WMATA Board of Directors.
“After many months of negotiation, we reached a good deal for our employees that also provides our Board of Directors with an affordable option for bus and rail service for the next four years,” Wiedefeld said.
“I am pleased to have a deal that I can recommend to my members.” said Raymond Jackson, ATU Local 689 President. “This deal will help safeguard our jobs against privatization. This deal would benefit all of our members and solidify transit careers as a pathway to the middle class. We look forward to providing details to our members as soon as possible.”
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Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 is comprised of more than 13,000 members and retirees performing occupations within the many skilled transportation crafts for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), MetroAccess, DASH, and the DC Streetcar. 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.
