By D. Kevin McNeirSpecial to the AFRO
The District’s DC Circulator bus system, which has been a preferred mode of transportation for riders all through the Higher Washington Space, started shedding workers on Tuesday, Oct. 1. Ninety Circulator workers have been laid off on Oct. 1. Seventy-eight workers have already secured positions inside the Washington Metropolitan Space Transit Authority. Nonetheless, they may lose their seniority, begin at decrease hourly wages and be assigned totally different shifts. Circulator drivers additionally realized that they won’t be given preferential therapy within the hiring course of.
Throughout a latest council transportation listening to with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and members of the D.C. Metropolis Council, Circulator spokespersons famous that workers who safe jobs with Metro might count on their hourly wages to say no from $40 to $28 whereas those that have labored their approach up in seniority to get nights and weekends off, a lot of whom at the moment are of their 50s and 60s, could possibly be reassigned to graveyard shifts.
The layoffs signify a part of D.C.’s plan to phase-out the bus system, which has been round for 20 years. Final yr, the D.C. Circulator bus system had 1.9 million riders and near 300 workers. In latest weeks, transit employees and District residents have held rallies criticizing the shutdown, asking Metro to take over the beleaguered bus system to no avail.
Union representatives, together with Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Native 689, one of many unions that represents the employees, stated it’ll proceed to combat to retain present pay charges. ATU asserts that Circulator workers had five-year contracts that assured job safety via 2028. Nonetheless, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser slashed funding for the Circulator from this yr’s price range.
Riders on the Circulator bus system can count on to see adjustments and cancellations of service starting in October.
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