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STOP
CHICAGO TRANSIT
RATE HIKES, CUTS & LAYOFFS!
Money for Transit, Jobs, Health Care, Housing & Education,
Not Bank Bailouts & Endless War!
National Day of Action
to Defend Public Transit!
Wednesday, April 4,
2012, 6 pm
In Chicago: Protest at CTA Headquarters (567 W. Lake)
Directions (Green Line - Clinton Stop)
Info:
773-463-0311
Occupy Chicago Facebook Event
Riders and Transit Workers
Stand Together and Organize to Defend Transit Funding and
Workers Rights!
No Transit
Cuts: Make the Billionaires and Banks Pay Up! Money for
Transit, Not War!
The April 4 National Day of Action for Public
Transportation was initiated by Occupy Boston and is supported
by the Amalgamated Transit Union
International (www.ATU.org).
Actions are taking place in over 18 cities. In Chicago, ATU
Local 241 is supporting the action along with Occupy Chicago,
ANSWER Chicago, Little Village Environmental Justice
Organization and NoCTAcuts.org.
Across the nation and in
Chicago, transit funding and transit unions are under attack.
The Emanuel administration's most recent attack against transit
came in the form of a threat against workers. Outrageously, the
city wants to eliminate work safety rules that save lives. The
fat cats who run city hall also want to take $230 million out of
the workers pockets over the next two years--all while the city
contiunes to dole out huge tax breaks and subsidies to
billionaire corporations like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange,
Boeing and United Airlines.
Let's Fight Back:
ANSWER Chicago urges everyone who can to join this very
important action to save public transit and defend transit
workers.
Chicago
workers hit streets to march for jobs
Monday, January 25, 2010
The time to
stop the layoffs and budget cuts is now!
Hundreds of people marched
through downtown Chicago on Jan. 18 to stop job, school, transit
and budget cuts. Transit workers, teachers, students and
community organizations joined together in a militant protest to
fight against these attacks on working-class people.
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Chicago residents take to the streets to fight back
against the severe budget cuts targeting public
transit, schools and other services. |
The march started at the
Chicago Transit Authority headquarters and made stops at Boeing, the
Chicago Board of Education and Chase Bank. The most popular chant
was, “Money for Jobs, not for the Banks!”
The CTA is threatening
to layoff over 1,067 union bus drivers and mechanics and slash bus
and train service in poor and working-class neighborhoods around the
city.
The Chicago Public
School District has announced the closure of 14 schools—yet
another round in the city’s ongoing drive to privatize education
and attack the teachers’ union.
On Jan. 20,
approximately 150 bus drivers and community supporters protested and
rallied outside the headquarters of the CTA to oppose the planned
service cuts and layoffs.
Despite the cold
weather, protesters carried placards demanding “No service
cuts!” and “No job cuts!” while chanting for over two hours.
Protesters chanted “They say cut back, we say fight back!” and
“No cuts! No layoffs!”
The proposed CTA cuts
and layoffs are scheduled to take effect on Feb. 7. Approximately 1
million people ride CTA busses daily and the cuts would leave almost
190,000 people without bus service.
CTA board members, all
appointees of Mayor Daley and Governor Quinn, have launched a public
attack on the transit unions. They are arrogantly trying to paint
the transit unions as the problem. CTA president Richard Rodriguez
has gone as far as announcing that service cuts can be rolled back
if the unions “grant concessions.” The CTA also sent out layoff
notices to many workers in direct violation of the contract
agreement.
City officials are
planning to balance the transit budget on the backs of workers and
riders while banks and Wall Street corporations that operate in
Chicago are swimming in trillions of dollars of federal and local
government aid.
This is a simple matter
of justice during the worst economic crisis in generations: Not one
single CTA, school or any workers should lose their jobs. Money can
and must be immediately used to fund transit and create jobs. Funds
should come from the big banks and corporations who fill their
treasuries up every day with profits made directly from the labor of
the city’s workers.
Workers and
riders protest transit layoffs and cuts in Chicago
Monday, December 14, 2009
By: Stefanie Fisher
Fight back!
An injury to one is an injury to all!
 Holding
their placards high, over 150 Chicago Transit Authority workers,
riders and community supporters picketed and rallied on the
morning of Dec. 9 outside a meeting of the CTA board. The majority
of the workers present were union bus drivers who are locked in a
struggle with the powers that be in the city to save their jobs.
CTA executives have sent pink slips
to approximately 2,000 workers. Other CTA budget cuts will slash
bus service by 18 percent and train service by 9 percent.
The determined crowd marched in
sub-zero weather, demanding an end to service cuts and layoffs.
"No service cuts!” and “Chop from the top!" were
popular chants.
Carlos Acevedo of Local 241 of the
Amalgamated Transit Union; Robert Kelly, president of ATU Local
308; and Heather Benno of NoCTACuts.org spoke at a short rally at
the end of the picket.
The criminal service cuts and
layoffs are scheduled to go into effect on Feb. 7, 2010. CTA
executives, who all make six-figure salaries and are appointees of
Mayor Daley and Governor Quinn, are using the economic crisis as
an excuse to wage a vicious assault on workers and transit riders.
To get involved in the struggle to
stop the service cuts and layoffs, go to NoCTAcuts.org.
Join the struggle to stop attacks on public transit and transit
workers!
Working People of
Chicago, Let's Stand Up and Fight Back ... !
On Nov. 12 The CTA board passed the 2010 budget.
1,100 transit jobs are on the chopping block. Drastic service cuts
were approved, including
an 18% cut in bus service and a 9% cut in train service.
The CTA, PACE and METRA are all
claiming budget short falls for 2010. During the worst economic
crisis in generations, they are threatening to raise fares, cut
services, layoff workers and more. All while trillions of
tax-payer dollars are spent on unpopular corporate handouts and bonuses and wars that
benefit a tiny few.
When government agencies say
that the only way we can maintain essential services like public transit is
for us to pay more or for workers to get paid less or lose their
jobs, they are lying. They're also acting in a deliberate and
arrogant manner to attack social services and make
working people bear the majority of the suffering during the economic crisis--all
while we directly fund Wall Street's luxurious lifestyles.
If we stand
together, we can stop the fare hikes, layoffs and cuts! In attacking the transit unions,
the CTA is trying to
discourage a united fight back by dividing riders and transit workers.
Free rides for
seniors are not the problem, as many government and media talking heads
are suggesting. Transit should and could be free, especially for older and
retired workers.
For the government, profits come before people and badly needed
public services. Mayor Daley did not
hesitate to guarantee over $4 billion for the Olympics, sell the
parking meters to Morgan Stanley and give United Airlines $50
million to move to the city. Against the will of the people, the federal government has
bailed out the
banks with over $17.8 trillion. (SEIU Bulletin, Sept. 2009) Yet unemployment and foreclosures continue
to skyrocket. All across the country, social services are under
the most cynical, viscous attack.
The CTA and other transit agencies could
easily find the money to cover the $300 million so-called
"budget gap." For example, Mayor Daley has $1 billion in
his private TIF "slush fund" and millions more left over
from the parking meter deal.
The Chicago economy produces massive sums of wealth. The 2008
GDP in Illinois was $637 billion, which would make Illinois the
18th richest country in the world! No one should have to go
without a job, home, health care, a quality education or have services cut, even in the worst economic
times. The transit rates should and can be decreased, not
increased!
Let's work together and fight for funding for people's needs. Help
build a movement to stop the transit budget cuts. People over profits. Join us
in the struggle.
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