Image description: photo of the front of a Port Authority bus picking up passengers. The operator is looking at the camera giving a heart sign with his hands.
In the conversation about service disruptions and vaccine mandates, there are no winners if we continue down this path of hardline positions. We cannot afford to trade service for safety, or safety for service: we need both.
Excerpt from PPT's March 15th call for cooperation:
"Pittsburghers for Public Transit (PPT) is a grassroots union organizing for a more equitable, affordable and accessible transit system that meets all needs, with no communities left behind.
We stand with transit riders and transit workers. To that end, we urge the Port Authority and ATU Local 85 to negotiate a quick and amenable resolution to the vaccine mandate issue, and one that doesn’t result in the loss of experienced transit workers that keep our system running. There are no winners if we continue down this path because we cannot afford to trade service for safety, or safety for service: we need both.
We are facing devastating transit service cuts – both in the immediate future from missed trips with transit workers out on disciplinary leave and from those who are out sick, and longer-term. The Port Authority is already planning for significant service cuts in June, to mirror the capacity of a depleted workforce. That creates a downward spiral of reduced transit service and fewer riders, which justifies further cuts. This will be harmful in the long run to both the transit riders that rely on the service, and to the size and years of experience within the transit workforce. It would also be an enormous loss to our region, which depends on public transit to ease congestion and support our workforce needs, and benefits from having a robust unionized workforce in public transit with living wages and family-supporting benefits.
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