On Tuesday, May 20, members of PPT and the ATU’s Local 85 joined transit supporters from around the country in our nation’s capitol to call for federal transportation funding. The rally and lobby day was organized by the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Transit Workers’ Union as a part of their Transit Action Month campaign.
Speakers at the rally included elected and union officials, Rev. Al Sharpton, and PPT’s own Alicia Williamson, who shared our Transit Bill of Rights and the scoop on how we mobilized thousands of riders, workers, and supporters around it in order to help get a comprehensive transportation funding bill passed in Pennsylvania last fall in spite of some pretty significant political obstacles. “Which just goes to show,” she said, “that an organized ridership working in solidarity with organized labor GETS THE GOODS. Workers fighting together get the goods. We did it in Harrisburg; we can do it here.” She also thanked the ATU for “being a union that makes things happen, for making our transit systems better and safer and more equitable, and especially for helping to bring riders and drivers together to fight for what’s right because we’re not just workers and customers in a business, we’re co-owners in a public service that benefits everyone whether or not you ride.”
PPT was proud to stand with the ATU to call for more public support and funding for public mass transit. Most importantly, Transit Action Month has helped us build communities and coalitions to improve OUR transit system. Fix it. Fund it. Make it fair!
