Lost in the discussion about privatization of MARTA is the fact that the agency, even with the “enlightened” leadership of Keith Parker, is behaving very much like private companies that seek to take over public properties: It is skimping on safety, putting unsafe buses on the road and ignoring its own safety rules, hoping that no one will notice.
The ATU has noticed that safety is not Parker’s top priority, that he is over-spending on equipment that doesn’t work, and that his motto seems to be “schedules before safety.”
Last year, there were over 10,000 “swap outs,” meaning buses taken off the road. These are MARTA numbers. Nearly 30 buses per day have problems that should have been — could have been — addressed before the buses posed a danger.
On March 13, we sent a 300-page comprehensive complaint to 30 city, state and federal agencies and our elected officials. To date, only state Sen. Vincent Fort and the Federal Transit Administration have responded. Missing in action when it comes to protecting the public? MARTOC Chairman Mike Jacobs, the state Department of Transportation and MARTA board Chairman Fred Daniels.
Parker’s only response was to call the Amalgamated Transit Union, imploring ATU to send a joint letter to the Federal Transit Administration saying that the ATU and MARTA were working together to fix the problems. Since that would have been a lie, I rejected Mr. Parker’s request as too late, a possible backdoor attempt at a safety cover-up.
In an April 29 letter, FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff promised an FTA review of the issues, adding that he looked forward to partnering with the ATU, MARTA and the Georgia DOT to “resolve this matter.”
We have tried repeatedly to get MARTA to address these serious concerns. Sadly, we have been met with silence, which is particularly offensive since MARTA board members are supposed to answer to the elected officials who appoint them, and ultimately to the riding public.
In December 2012, Jack Jackson, the ATU’s Financial Secretary, wrote to MARTA board members informing them that MARTA was not adhering to safety guidelines established in 2009 by the ATU-MARTA Joint Health and Safety committee. He was ignored. On March 1, Jackson wrote to Parker asking him to deal with “the numerous safety issues at MARTA.”
The answer? Silence.
The intransigence of Daniels and Parker is now in the sunshine of public discussion, instead of the darkened rooms of MARTA, where records proving our case are stored – away from public eyes.
We welcome input from the mayor and governor and the MARTA board as to how they will repair the damage — and the buses — and how they will insist that Parker stop taking chances with the lives of our passengers and drivers.
Curtis Howard is president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 732 of the AFL-CIO.
