Call on Candidate to stand with workers against income inequality and scheme to outsource paratransit
Atlanta, GA, - MARTA workers were joined by “Christopher Columbus” outside of Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Jason Carter’s Columbus Day fundraiser to “help Carter discover the real middle class.” Transit workers are calling on Carter to stand against income inequality and MARTA’s scheme to outsource essential transit services.
“In 1492 Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, which would become the land of equal opportunity for all. But in 2014,Atlanta has become two cities – one for the uber wealthy who keep getting richer, and one for the working people of Atlanta, who are being beaten down and pushed out of the middle class,” said Amalgamated Transit Union Local 732 President Curtis Howard. “We‘re asking Jason Carter to take a stand. If he wants to rebuild the middle class like his campaign literature says, he needs to commit to putting MARTA back on the right track.”
Carrying signs, including ones that read “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue... With middle class jobs now at stake, what course will Jason Carter take?”, transit workers are urging Carter to oppose a scheme concocted by MARTA CEO Keith Parker and Board Chair Robbie Ashe to dismantle and sell off MARTA’s mobility service to private companies.
Parker and Ashe’s plan will make it more difficult for minority workers to get to jobs and threaten the safety and reliability of paratransit service that Atlanta’s seniors, children with special needs and those with disabilities rely on to live independent lives. More than 300 middle class jobs held mostly by African Americans are also at stake.
The demonstration takes place as MARTA workers have been working without a raise for seven years Years of wage stagnation have left MARTA workers with an effective 15% reduction in pay that puts them far below what is considered a “living wage” in the Atlanta metro area. Parker and Ashe are demanding workers pay even more for health care, which would further reduce their take home pay.
MARTA workers have intensified their campaign in recent days, holding a rally outside Ashe’s law offices, leafleting riders and running a radio ad campaign on radio stations across Atlanta. More actions are expected in the days ahead.