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Union joins Occupy for protests against public transportation cuts
The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) will join demonstrations Wednesday to call attention to fare hikes and service reductions on public transportation systems.
Members of the Occupy Wall Street Movement are teaming up with unions for the demonstrations, and events are planned in at least 15 different cities, including Boston, Chicago and Denver. The rallies, leafleting and candlelight vigils will commemorate April 4, 1967, the day Martin Luther King Jr., spoke out against the Vietnam conflict and linked war to poverty.
“We embrace that idea. We are working with Occupy and passengers to break the silence on mass transit,” Hanley told The Hill.
Hanley pointed to a proposal that passed Occupy Boston’s general assembly last month as inspiration for the national day of action.
“The General Assembly of Boston calls on occupations, general assemblies and people’s movements across the country and around the globe to mobilize on April 4, 2012, to demand public transportation for the 99 percent,” the Occupy Boston proposal said. “In Boston and in cities around the country, our hard-won and necessary transportation systems are under attack. Their viability is being threatened by savage cuts and fare hikes in a calculated push toward privatization by corrupt and unresponsive politicians and their corporate benefactors.”
ATU has set up a webpage that will encourage visitors to contact their lawmakers on Capitol Hill about public transportation. Once a visitor fills in their zip code, he or she will be able to fill in a form email to his or her representatives, asking them to pass the Senate version of the highway bill.
“Despite the fact that transit funding has been temporarily extended, lawmakers must fully fund public transportation and create a long-term plan upon their return from recess,” says the form email.
The Senate was able to pass the surface transportation reauthorization legislation — a $109 billion, two-year bill — earlier this year, but the House has struggled to pass its own legislation. Both chambers approved a short-term funding extension for transportation before leaving last week for recess.
“What came out of the Senate was something we could live with,” Hanley said. “I think Congress has no attention span when it comes to mass transit. … We would be happy to see the Congress adopt the position of the Senate.”
Hanley said transit agencies are using more and more of their operating budgets to pay down debt that came from building out their transportation systems. That money could go to repairing crumbling systems and transit workers’ wages instead.
“Our cities are getting more congested, not less. We need to invest immediately in transit infrastructure, not by borrowing but by investing the money we have,” Hanley said.
The ATU president said the day of action was more than just about legislation moving through Congress.
“This is not about a bill,” Hanley said. “This is about focusing on the 99 percent of us who need public transit every day.”
