WASHINGTON, DC, April 13—Bus operators at the D.C. Circulators are fighting back—96 percent of them voted to strike for wages and benefits after holding two vigorous protests where negotiations were taking place. These 150 operators have been paid lower wages than their Metro transit counterparts for over a decade, and the workers are fed up! Their struggle shows how the racist capitalist system especially oppresses Black workers and attempts to divide workers even in the same union from their brothers and sisters.
Progressive Labor Party (PLP) has been helping lead the fight for wage parity among transit workers in the DC area for many years, and helped organize and lead the two rallies. But wage parity is not enough. Any wages mean the capitalists are profiting off of our labor. We will keep struggling endlessly to destroy capitalism and its profiteering bosses.
Make strikes schools for communist workers’ power
Workers that can organize strikes can run society and we would run it to benefit all workers, not racist, sexist, profiteering capitalists. That’s communism. Industrial workers are key to building such a revolutionary movement and the PLP has been raising class consciousness and multiracial unity through our work in the union for decades. The predominantly Black workforce in the transit industry in DC makes any attack on this group of workers a racist one, and we are calling this out for what it is.
Despite shady manipulation by the union’s lawyer who signed off on a 30-day contract extension with the company, workers showed up on their day off to vote and spread the word throughout the company to vote Yes for a strike. The Circulator operators belong to the 13,000-member ATU Local 689 but are saddled with a separate, inferior contract with a private contractor, RAPTDEV, an international company that exploits workers all around the world, and makes billions doing so. A key part to winning any strike at the Circulator is gaining the support of Metro workers throughout the system.
The son of a Circulator operator took pride in developing an energizing playlist of fightback songs to keep the picket line at the rallies going. While we started with the classic chant of “The workers united, will never be defeated!” union members on the picket line also joined in with a new chant on the spot mocking RAPTDEV’s offer of a 30 cent/hour raise saying “30 cent ain’t sh*t!” (which we all really enjoyed chanting). At one point the company lawyers came downstairs to observe the rally from inside the hotel lobby, and militant workers yelled and banged on the window until they fled like the dogs they are with their tails between their legs.
Safety blitz upsets bosses; communism will eliminate them
Union mechanics and organizers did an early morning safety blitz to make sure Circulator workers were being assigned safe buses by management, another tactic to fight RAPTDEV. Many operators had to go from two to three buses to find one that worked! Management routinely tries to intimidate operators into taking out unsafe buses, from broken horns to non-working turn signals. One bus had such poor brakes that the bus slid! The drive for profit supersedes any safety regulations under capitalism. But bolstered by worker solidarity, operators reported all unsafe buses to management. Management was so upset by our safety blitz presence that they called the cops on us!
At each rally, PL’ers distributed CHALLENGE and expressed solidarity with the workers. One PLP member gave a speech connecting the struggle at Circulator to similar union fights at Howard University and Amazon warehouses. Many workers were inspired to hear that their fight is supported far and wide, and opens the way to understanding the need to take the road to communist revolution.