On December 17, 2014, Capital Bikeshare employees participated in a National Labor Relations Board election. We voted 41 to 14 to join the Transport Workers Union of America, Local 100 (TWU). Capital Bikeshare employees have now joined with our brothers and sisters in New York, Chicago, and Boston to form a union. Thank you so much to all of our coworkers and community members who supported our efforts!
Hello! I’m a bike checker with Capital Bikeshare. My coworkers in my department and I ride around the city and provide first line maintenance to all the bikes. Together with the rest of the workers at CaBi in the service, tech and rebalancing departments, we are in the process of unionizing.
First, a brief explanation of CaBi operations, because its weird. I technically work for Alta Bicycle Share, who has the contract to operate and maintain bikeshare in the DMV. The marketing, deciding where station expansions should go, etc is handled by different folks, we just keep the system up and running. Yep, it’s a little strange.
But the important part is that we, the workers, are a bunch of DC metro area residents. Right now, we don’t have a seat at the table when decisions are made about how the system should run and how our jobs are done. We just got bought out by a huge investment company based in New York. This is a great sign that bikeshare is here to stay. But we need to ensure that those of us whose labor keeps the system running aren’t dropped from the picture and benefit from the hard work we have put in. Things are okay for us right now but unionizing will ensure that we are safe down the line. Our being unionized will allow us to keep delivering a great system and advocate for ways to make it even better.
Why is this important?
Having our members show their support for the employees of Capital Bikeshare is key; our main leverage is member relations - namely, you all. Having members sign the petition and show that they endorse the right of CaBi workers to unionize is huge. Please, tell Alta/REQX to voluntarily recognize the union we have formed with TWU Local 100 and to drop the motion to clarify, that is, allow everyone who wants to be in the Union a seat at the table.
Thank you everyone to has signed the petition. However, it appears our work has just begun. At the NLRB hearing Jackson-Lewis successfully pushed our petition to unionize out. We are starting back from ground zero. We still need your support - letting them know that we, the public, those who use the bikes stand for workers rights will go a long way in our struggle.
Thank You.
