Transit Workers ‘Rally for Accessibility’ Today

Hundreds of DC-area Metro workers, disability and senior rights advocates, and transit workers from across the country will hold a “Rally for Accessibility” at Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) headquarters this morning. “On May 1, 1886, American workers sacrificed their lives to demand that a legal day’s work last no more than eight hours,” says Jackie L. Jeter, president of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689, which represents many Metro and MetroAccess workers.  “And, here we are, 129 years later, fighting the same fight against new opposition. Instead of greedy American private sector bosses, we’re fighting our own government agencies that give our taxpayer dollars away to foreign transit multinationals in return for poor, and sometimes no, service, and exploitation of public workers and riders.”

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