Transit Workers Rally For Safety
Monday, May 22, 2006(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
“Metro opens doors, they shouldn’t open caskets!” chanted
members of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689 who rallied last Thursday
morning at Metro headquarters in downtown DC. The rally was prompted by unsafe
working conditions the union says caused the recent fatalities of two Metro
track workers, Jon Lee and Michael Walden. “Not only is this a protest against
the unsafe working conditions, but it is also a memorial to the death of Jon Lee
and other metro workers killed on the job,” Mike Golash, President of Local
689 told Union City. “We want better safety and training,” Metro worker
Pauline Flemmings told UC. “We want there to be a backbone in the company.”
Flemming said that any fatality is one too many. A spirited crowd of Metro
workers and supporters rallied under overcast skies as Golash told demonstrators
that the lack of training, dangerous working conditions, inadequate timing and
scheduling of trains and eight-hour workdays without breaks all contributed to
the increased dangers of Metro jobs. “Safety is number one for all
transportation workers,” bus operator Khalid Mohamed told Union City. “Metro
needs to take safety more seriously.” The demonstrators observed a solemn
moment of silence during the rally to commemorate the deaths of Metro workers
killed on the job. Holding a sign reading “Support Local 689, Our Lives are on
the Line!” above her head, Flemmings told Union City “I want Metro to look
out for the workers and not the other way around.”
- reporting and photo by
Jenna Brooks