The transit workers union won back-to-back cases last week when a neutral arbitrator ordered WMATA to rehire a Track Inspector Supervisor and then an independent arbitration panel said that contracting out union work at the new Cinder Bed Road bus garage in Lorton, Virginia without bargaining with the union is “unacceptable.” In the first case, a neutral arbitrator sided with ATU Local 689 and ordered WMATA to rehire a Track Inspector Supervisor, with backpay, for what the arbitration panel called “[scapegoating] by the Authority for a widespread failing” that led to the 2016 derailment of a Metro Rail car at East Falls Church. In the second case, the panel ordered WMATA to come to the bargaining table and negotiate with the union on the impact and effect of the existing work on what will go to the new bus garage in Lorton. ATU Local 689 President Jackie Jeter called the ruling “a win for the labor movement around the country as we all fight back from these attempts to privatize public transit.” photo: December 2017 ATU Cinder Road demo