WIN Annual Reports April 2019 Midyear Report | Page 18

17
WAS H I N G T O N I N T E RF AI T H N E T WO RK
TRANSIT ORGANIZING SECURES
$500 MILLION/YEAR FOR WMATA
$500
million
per year for WMATA funding,
slated to create $1 5 billion in
improvements
200+
workers
for the DC Circulator will
maintain their jobs, wages, and
benefits under new contractor
$10.15
per hour
up to
increase
in wages & drastically improved
insurance for DC Streetcar
workers
300+ person transit action in June 201 8. Photo by David Choy.
WIN, along with its sister organizations in the DMV
that are a part of Metro IAF, allied with the
Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), which has
18,000 members in the region and a 100-year
organizing history. Together, we engaged the power
base of our 200 member institutions to call for good
transit and good jobs. We held dozens of actions
with thousands of residents and with elected
officials across all three jurisdictions. In spring
2018, an agreement for $500 million/year in
dedicated funding for WMATA passed in DC, MD,
VA. This historic victory provides WMATA with
dedicated funding for the first time ever, and it
passed without the threatened mandates of a
federal control board, privatization, or destruction
of frontline workers' retirement security.
In 2018, WIN and ATU brought 40+ leaders to a
DC Council hearing to testify about the privatization
of the DC Circulator, and followed up with 300+
person action with both candidates for DC Council
Chair. This local organizing resulted in increased
wages and benefits for privatized DC workers.