Delta Variant: The ATU demands enhanced safety precautions for workers and riders

DELTA VARIANT:

The ATU demands enhanced safety precautions for workers and riders

With the more contagious COVID-19 Delta variant spreading, the ATU is demanding that transit agencies and providers across the U.S. and Canada enhance their now relaxed safety precautions.

Transit agencies have received billions in federal relief

“The transit industry is better equipped to deal with the pandemic than ever,” wrote International President John Costa in a letter to the transit agencies. “We have received billions of dollars in federal funding to address the pandemic. We have developed technical expertise in transmission and hazard abatement. Supply chain problems for PPE have been worked out.”

The letter laid out specific demands for transit agencies and employers to work with the ATU to better protect transit workers. These include making personal protective equipment available for all employees and masks for passengers, better air quality on vehicles, filtration and disinfection of buses, prevention of overcrowding on vehicles, return to rear-door boarding, free and convenient COVID-19 testing, much-deserved hazard pay, and pandemic leave. “The industry knows what needs to be done to protect transit workers and passengers, and it has the resources necessary to get it done. The transit industry must stop the infections and loss of life which transit workers have suffered during this pandemic,” the letter concluded. v