TWU, ATU Join on Capitol Hill to Push Transit Funding
Pres. Samuelsen, in DC with the Rev. Al Sharpton and TWU Int'l President Harry Lombardo
In Washington, the nation's major transit unions came together on a shared agenda of funding for mass transit. The TWU and the ATU were joined by civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton, who called mass transit advocates civil rights advocates. At noon on April 20, hundreds of TWU members marched arm in arm with our brothers and sisters at the ATU to Upper Senate Park in Washington, DC, calling on Congress to fund mass transit.
Those assembled — members of TWU and ATU, riders, public officials, advocates and allies — heard from Sen. Sherrod Brown, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. Marcia Fudge, Rep. Alan Grayson, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, ATU International President Larry Hanley, TWU International President Harry Lombardo and TWU Int'l Executive Vice President John Samuelsen.
TWU leadership and rank and file members, who are in Washington for the Union's 2014 Legislative and COPE Conference, carried the momentum of the march into dozens of meetings with their elected representatives, in a second day of targeted lobbying on Capitol Hill. Read more at the TWU International's coverage of the convention.