FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:Michael Buckley
202/628-9262
Washington, DC –In advance of an upcoming debate, three transportation labor leaders are calling on the U.S. Senate to increase federal support for transit programs by $400 million in the Fiscal Year 2006 appropriations bill.
Warning that, “public transportation services will suffer at a time when more and more people are relying upon transit to get to work,” leaders of the Amalgamated Transit Union, the Transport Workers Union of America, and the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department (TTD) today urged the Senate to meet the funding levels authorized earlier this year by Congress in the multi-year transit and highway bill, also known as SAFETEA-LU.
“An overwhelming bi-partisan majority in Congress voted for a bill that provides strong support to improve and expand our nation’s transit systems. We call upon the Senate to fulfill that commitment,” said TTD President Edward Wytkind, who signed a joint letter to the Senate along with ATU International President Warren S. George and TWU International President Mike O’Brien.
The three expressed concern that the Transit Career Ladder Training Program may not be fully funded. This joint labor-management initiative provides vital job training for workers on new technologies to make transit systems safer and more efficient.
The Senate, as early as October 17, will consider the Fiscal Year 2006 Transportation appropriations bill.
TTD represents 29 member unions in the rail, aviation, transit, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit www.ttd.org.
