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