Community Forum to Shine Spotlight on Bowser’s Transit Policies

More than 100 D.C. residents are expected to pack the 5th Street BusBoys and Poets tonight to hear from D.C. Streetcar, Circulator, and Capital Bikeshare employees about employment law violations and poor policy decisions they say are eroding public transit in the District and putting riders at risk. Hosted by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), which represents more than 10,000 transit workers in the WMATA, DDOT, and Fairfax County systems, the “DC Fair Transit Forum” will also bring together several threads of social and political activism that have shaped D.C. politics and policy in recent years. “Mayor Bowser inherited a messy DDOT transit system,” said ATU President Larry Hanley. “But she’s only made it worse by throwing money at private contractors when she should be investigating and arresting them for their mismanagement of the services and abuse of workers.” Noting that the ATU's fight for a fair and competitive wage “speaks to a larger structural issue affecting workers in this city,” ONE DC’s Jennifer Bryant said that “It is possible to work full-time in DC and still not afford to live here. It is also possible for us to organize to change this.”

The Community Forum starts at 6:30 p.m. at BusBoys and Poets, 1025 5th Street NW.

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