WMATA Workers Demand End to Worker Abuse at DC Streetcar

As the DC Streetcar began yet another week of ghostlike, riderless trips up and down H Street, its overseers at DDOT faced increased pressure from local transit workers over what they say is an illegal mass firing of streetcar workers. While DDOT Director Leif Dormsjo looked on during a Tuesday hearing of the DC Council Committee on Transportation and the Environment focused on DDOT's budget, the Amalgamated Transit Union demanded that DDOT withhold payments to McDonald Transit, which that manages the DC Streetcar for DDOT. "The DC Streetcar is already an embarrassing financial and urban planning fiasco. Let’s not allow it to become a human rights fiasco, too," said the ATU’s Chris Townsend.