Where would you rather have your tax dollars go?
Tell the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority:
NO SERVICE CUTS!
NO LAYOFFS!
NO FARE HIKES!
A Justice First Initiative
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Here's how you can get involved: 1) Click here to sign the petition 2) Click here to send a letter to WMATA Board Members. It takes just moments to send a letter to every member of the Board with our easy-to-use mechanism. 3) Send the WMATA Board your testimony by Mon, April 20 at 5:00 pm: Mail or hand deliver to the Office of the Secretary, WMATA, 600 5th St NW, Washington, D.C. 20001, or email to public-hearing-testimony@wmata.com. 4) Send Justice First a copy of your testimony at justicefirst2009@yahoo.com so we can help publicize your story 5) Circulate the flyer and petition: Flyer (8.5x11 PDF), Petition (8.5x11 PDF) |
The Metro claims it is grappling with a $154 million budget deficit--the largest budget shortfall in the agency’s 33-year history. The jurisdictions served have come up with possible service cuts and fare increases to help the agency balance its budget, including service cuts impacting 72 routes on 42 bus lines throughout the region, increasing the interval bertween bus arrival times on 28 routes, eliminating or restructuring 35 other bus routes, and increasing fares on several bus routes. These cuts would have an enormous impact on working people who depend on bus service, especially in Maryland and Virginia.
In addition, Metro already plans to layoff 313 workers. They have also begun to contract Metro bus lines out to the DC Circulator. Metro workers now make about $25 an hour with health and pension benefits. Even though DC Circulator is unionized, they make roughly $14 an hour with less benefits.
Justice First demands dedicated federal funding for Metro. All other major city public transportation systems receive such funding except WMATA--the public transportation system that services the capital of the richest and most powerful country in the world.
Taking the metro is not a vacation. Workers take the metro everyday to go to work for their employers. In the private sector, corporations are making profits. If the transit authority has a deficit, corporations should be taxed and the government should pay the bill, not the workers.
It is an outrage that the government wants to put the burden of WMATA's deficit on workers when it spends $400 million a day to fund an illegal war in Iraq that has caused the deaths of over 4,000 U.S. soliders and a million Iraqis. Less than 10 hours of the Iraq War would cover the alleged deficit!
Metro’s Board is expected to take a final vote on the proposed 2010 budget--which includes these service cuts and fare hikes--in June “after weighing public input.”
We will protest, attend the hearings, and organize a grassroots movement to demand:
NO SERVICE CUTS, NO LAYOFFS, NO FARE HIKES!
We must be in the streets to let elected official know that our tax dollars need to be used to meet people’s needs, including public transportation, not for an illegal and immoral war and occupation in Iraq.
Less than 10 hours of the Iraq war would cover the Metro’s “deficit”!
It’s your hard-earned money. Fight for your rights!
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Here's how you can get involved: 1) Click here to sign the petition 2) Click here to send a letter to WMATA Board Members. It takes just moments to send a letter to every member of the Board with our easy-to-use mechanism. 3) Send the WMATA Board your testimony by Mon, April 20 at 5:00 pm: Mail or hand deliver to the Office of the Secretary, WMATA, 600 5th St NW, Washington, D.C. 20001, or email to public-hearing-testimony@wmata.com. 4) Send Justice First a copy of your testimony at justicefirst2009@yahoo.com so we can help publicize your story 5) Circulate the flyer and petition: Flyer (8.5x11 PDF), Petition (8.5x11 PDF) |
Justice First
202-265-0333
www.pephost.org/metro
Who is Justice First?
Justice First is a newly-formed national grassroots organization that organizes for economic justice, civil liberties and civil rights.
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