Transit Union Rallies for Security, Funding

Transit union and supporters march across W. Wells St. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

The union representing Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) workers held a rally Monday demanding better security on the buses and protection for transit funding.

The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 998 marched from their union hall near the intersection of N. 26th Street and W. Wisconsin Avenue to rally outside of the courthouse. The backdrop for their action is the ongoing work of the MCTS Security Task Force, which had just wrapped up its latest meeting when the rally began, and the impending financial cliff that could drastically cut the transit system’s funding.

Michael Brown, ATU vice-president, said the union’s security agenda is for operators and passengers alike. It was the union’s public advocacy on the issue of security within the transit system that pushed the issue for county policymakers. The security task force was created during the 2023 budget process after bus operators testified at county board meetings about their safety concerns and criticized MCTS security policies.

Brown was joined by ATU members, including a few from Kenosha currently negotiating a new contract. Local politicians like Supervisors Ryan Clancy and Steven Shea, and state Sen. Chris Larson attended. Members of other local unions and the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and the activist group Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression also marched with the ATU members.

The transit system faces a massive budget deficit that, according to fiscal projections, arrives in 2025 just as the last of the federal COVID-19 stimulus funds run out. Unless new funding is secured, the transit system estimates that it will have to cut 50% of system routes to close a budget gap of approximately $25 million or more.

Recently, Republican state legislators successfully moved state transit funding out of a specific transportation fund and into the state’s general fund. This move, Democratic legislators have argued, puts the money in direct competition with other spending priorities, potentially making it easier to cut in the future. Sup. Shea said at the rally, “This was a sleight of hand that will make it easier for them to cut transit in the future.”

Transportation is vital to the running of a major city and economy like Milwaukee. Both MCTS officials and union leaders have made this point in recent months as the peril in the system’s future has come into clearer view. “No cuts to transit,” Brown said. “They’re always messing with us. We move people. We get these people to jobs.”

“We need these buses on the road so people can get to work, so they can get to the store, so they can get to their doctor’s appointments and we need your help to get that done,” said Kyle Handel, a member of the local 998 executive board.

Pastor Greg Lewis, executive director of Souls to the Polls, said the bus service has repeatedly been taken away from working people in Milwaukee. “It’s always talk about ‘people don’t want to work’,” Lewis said. “How they gonna get to work?”

“Our community of working people is under attack,” Lewis said. “Once again that focus is aimed right at the Black community; the Black community and other working people.”

Lewis said that supporters of transit and working people have a fight on their hands. “And we have to fight vigorously.”