11.08.2005

Bad News about the Circulator

Those of us who live in and around DC have likely seen the new red buses, the Circulators, that travel a downtown loop from Union Station to Georgetown. My first impression was that this was a neat idea by metro to expand service and encourage the barrage of tourists to use our public transporation system.

Sadly, I learned this weekend (thanks to t.func) that there is a sad sad story behind these cute red buses. Even though you can use your smarttrip pass on the buses, these are not WMATA buses. In fact, this is the latest example of government contracting out services to private, anti-union, anti-worker businesses. In this case, these 29 buses are operated by FirstStudent of the UK. Yes, this is the same FirstStudent that is the target of SEIU and the UK Transport and General Workers Union joint campaign.

There are a lot of bad things about FirstStudent... here are just a few facts from the SEIU and TGW website:
-In a recent SEIU survey of First Student employees around the United States, 95 percent said that the company's health care plan was unaffordable, or poor and in need of improvement.
-In Florida, First Student recently sent to employees three letters denigrating unions and encouraging workers to refuse to sign a union card if asked to do so by co-workers or union organizers.
-First Student recently held a training session in Florida in which company managers were encouraged to stop unionization among their employees. One document given to First Student managers stated: "Unions no longer serve any useful purpose. Their time has passed."
So, what do we do? As a DC resident, I am certainly not going to recommend anyone use the Circulator. And we should all let the DC government know that we don't want cheaper services in exchange for lower standards. I think more public transport is a good idea, but I don't want private anti-worker companies providing these services. I guess that I don't really know what to do about this, but I'll start by telling everyone I know who is really providing these bus services, and at what cost.

Comments:
Hi all!. Use these helpful search engines TFO search & livechat and try to find all you need in your area!
for fun
 
Just as long as they acacceptation your loan apparently looking at your accept adventures they cannot accommodation and you pay for the accommodate. [url=http://cleverpaydayloans.co.uk]pay day loan[/url] No hassles, Lilliputian or no India paper work can take applicable actions about that financial act.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home