On Wednesday evening, 638 bus drivers, mechanics, utility and facility workers and clerks began a walkout at the Fairfax Connector transit system in Northern Virginia. The workers are members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A press release issued by Local 689 declared a \u201cvast divide between the Union and the company\u201d as of the last meeting between the two parties. The ATU reports that while the company\u2019s last stated offer \u201cincluded what appeared to be competitive wage increases for bus operators,\u201d it \u201cdeliberately failed to acknowledge\u201d the area\u2019s high cost of living and excluded other benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The workers have been without a new contract<\/a> since late November. Workers are demanding improved pay as well as retirement benefits. According to one driver, \u201cwe have people that work for 25-30 years who have retired and don\u2019t have any income\u2026 apart from social security\u201d in Fairfax County, one of the most expensive places to live in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTransdev is not doing anything [to meet our demands] for the economy, gas prices and food on the shelf,\u201d said one worker, who explained that most workers were young and lived in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, Connector workers receive only seven paid sick days. ATU 689 has called for a marginal improvement of 12 days paid sick leave. \u201cCOVID hasn\u2019t gone away,\u201d a mechanic told the World Socialist Web Site, adding that he had caught it at least three times without receiving compensation. The virus sidelined him for an entire month without pay in 2020. The worker explained this was something he was able to survive mainly due to leniency from creditors in the first year of the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The yearly income of a Fairfax Connector worker can vary from garage to garage. Workers in the western portion of Fairfax County are paid less than workers driving for the same company in the inner suburbs of Washington, D.C. A driver operating out of one garage makes up to $2.50 less than a driver elsewhere under the same job description. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBuses are brought into the shop from other yards because the repairs cost less here,\u201d a mechanic told the WSWS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless of location, all workers are underpaid at Fairfax Connector. According to the union, a new driver can expect to earn roughly $60,000 yearly in pay. This is less than half of the county\u2019s median household income of $133,000 for 2021. A worker noted that transit workers in neighboring Prince William County make $6 more an hour. \u201cMy property taxes have risen by $4,000. I\u2019m struggling to make my mortgage payment,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The walkout is the largest strike in the Washington, D.C. transit system since 2019, when the Fairfax Connector struck<\/a> briefly over unfair labor practices (ULP). The Connector serves roughly 26,000 passengers everyday on over 93 different bus routes and is operated by the transit corporation Transdev. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Transdev\u2019s website, the European-based multinational earned \u20ac7.07 billion in revenue in 2022. The Fairfax Connector service was leased to Transdev in 2019 for a payment of \u20ac400 million ($432.9 million) for a period of five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2019 Connector strike occurred at the same time as a walkout of over 120 Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) workers at the nearby Fairfax County garage on Cinder Bed Road<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The two struggles together represented the potential for a united struggle of transit workers throughout the region in defense of public transit and workers\u2019 living standards. However, the ATU leadership refused to link these workers\u2019 struggles even though both were against Transdev at the time and with members of the same union. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While WMATA\u2019s contract with Transdev was terminated<\/a> the following year, Cinder Bed Road workers had to pay for their pensions to follow them to their new employer, even while they remained within the same union local. Those unable to effectively pay twice for their retirement funds lost them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n