Just days after bus drivers in New York and Minneapolis refused to assist police in transporting people arrested during the unrest following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers, PayDay Report has learned that transit union leaders across the country are instructing members not to cooperate with police in arresting protestors.
The NYPD is using a bus to transfer arrested protesters at the Barclays Center.
However the bus driver refused to drive it. pic.twitter.com/Pqx4Nv8JhG
— ✡️ A socialist from NYC (@TheNYSocialist) May 30, 2020
“Many union leaders have instructed their members that their union contracts protect them against being forced to work in dangerous conditions,” PayDay Report’s Mike Elk writes. “They have informed their union members that their unions would use organizational legal resources to protect bus drivers who refuse to cooperate with the police.”
Speaking to PayDay report, one top union leader who asked to remain anonymous said that “bus drivers in a lot of places are going to be refusing work.”
Transit unions have been historically African American and have been key in building community labor alliances — alliances that resist helping with police crackdowns in communities of color.
“ATU members live with similar fears on a daily basis. ATU members face racism daily. Our members live in and work in neighborhoods where actions like this happen, and where this took place, now watched in horror across the globe,” ATU Local 1005 said in a statement.
