August 27, 2024
CONTACT:
Darryl Hairston, (202) 361-3466, dah.bb99@yahoo.com
Alletha Ballard, (202) 597-3296, allethaballard2016@gmail.com
Glynda Dansby, (202) 270-4773, glyndadansby46@gmail.com
(WASHINGTON, DC) – Ward 2, “DC Circulator Lives Matter” Employee Protest at Freedom Plaza 1325 Pennsylvania Ave., NW – August 29, 2024 at 11:00 AM.
DC Circulator employees with the support of the Healthy DC & Me Leadership Coalition, along with community leaders and stakeholders are speaking out against what they believe to be an injustice and lack of appropriate union representations regarding their ongoing concerns and frustrations with losing their employment due to the recent DC budget cuts.
Hundreds of DC Circulator workers feel betrayed by Mayor Muriel Bowser, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), and their employer RATP Dev USA. Employees are asking the DC Council to schedule a special hearing, and an audit to help them with gaining transparent understandings of why nine months after RATP DEV 5-year contract extension by DDOT was reversed, and why the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689 Director of Communications, Matthew Girardi says that the mayor and District Department of Transportation blindsided them with much of their recent actions. Matthew says, “what has been done to our members at Circulator by DDOT and Mayor Bowser is outrageous and we will be fighting back”.
DC Circulator Employees are scrambling to make sense of how they have become the latest casualties in the District’s ongoing violation of citizen and employee human and civil rights. Many of the DC Circulator employees have expressed distress and extreme anxiety over having the rug pulled out from under them and their families. The latest closedown agreement that has been reached between ATU local 689, and the Professional Employees
International Union (OPEIU) local 2 was done so without the inclusion or approval of many of the DC Circulator employees, who pay dues for protections from the union, that they say are not acceptable or reassuring.
DC CIRCULATOR EMPLOYEES DEMAND THAT DC GOVERNMENT & RATP DEV USA,
• Provide a guarantee that All DC Circulator employees will retain their current pay grade/rate, and not be subject to a lesser pay rate/grade if transitioned under WMATA.
• Provide a five (5) year transitional financial plan that will allow all DC Circulator employees to properly be made whole.
• Rescind the current closedown letter and allow DC Circulator employees to renegotiate terms that are less imposing on their mental and financial well-being.
• Participate in a mandatory DC Council special hearing to be held accountable to DC Circulator employees, and DC citizens who are seeking answers regarding the mayor and DC governments’ mishandling and failure to protect its workers and citizens from harmful and cruel mismanagement of the city’s contract awards and budget allocations.
Show up this Thursday, 8/29/24 at 11AM and support DC Circulator employees who are fighting back against misrepresentation, underrepresentation, false representation, and what they believe to be the violation of their human and civil rights. Help them to hold the DC mayor, government, RATP Dev, union leaders, and the DC transportation committee accountable for actions that have contributed to their unhealthy employment outcomes.