Media Advisory: Transit Workers Angry Over Cuts in Service at Metro and Other Transit Authorities Rally on Capitol Hill Tuesday for Federal Help and a Shift in Stimulus Spending

1. TWU/ATU
MEDIA ADVISORY
NEWS
April 26, 2010
Jamie Horwitz
202/549-4921
jhdcpr@starpower.net
ALL ROUTES LEAD TO WASHINGTON:
Transit Workers Angry Over Cuts in Service at Metro and
Other Transit Authorities Rally on Capitol Hill Tuesday for
Federal Help and a Shift in Stimulus Spending
Washington – Transit workers from across the nation, angry over cuts in service, will join an
estimated 600 local bus drivers and other transit employees for a protest rally at the Upper Senate
Park on Capitol Hill, Tuesday.
Across the country, local transit agencies are facing unprecedented service cuts. Here in
Washington, Metro may scale back weekend service; in New York City, public school students
are being told they will no longer be provided bus and subway passes; in Atlanta thirty percent of
the surrounding area’s bus routes may be cancelled. Meanwhile, federal funds are buying new
busses, machinery and rails, while doing little to defray crippling operating costs or compensating
for reduced state and local tax revenues.
Transit workers, with the support of the two major transit unions – the Amalgamated Transit
Union (ATU) and the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) – are asking Congress to
allow local transit systems to redirect some stimulus dollars from capital improvements toward
operating expenses. More than 40 bus loads of transit workers from New York and New Jersey
alone are expected for Tuesday’s rally, they also will be joined by representatives of civil rights
and environmental groups concerned about what service cuts mean to the public and the
environment.
WHO: ATU President Warren George, TWU President James C. Little, Rev. Jesse Jackson
Sr. and representatives of environmental, civil rights groups and other labor organizations,
hundreds of transit workers from the Washington area and across the nation
WHAT: Rally against cuts in transit service and calling on Congress to redirect federal

2. stimulus funds for operating Metro and other transit agencies
WHEN/WHERE: Noon, Tues., April 27, Upper Senate Park, Capitol Hill, Washington
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