Metro, Bus Drivers Union Fighting After Urine Attack

WASHINGTON, DC — Police may have arrested the woman accused of throwing urine on a Metro bus driver recently, but that hasn't done much to diffuse tensions between Metro and the union.

The two sides had already been locked in a vicious battle over a labor contract as well as a blame game about Metro's continuing problems with safety incidents, and the ugly attack on the X2 line in D.C. last weekend has further inflamed the situation.

No buses ran on the X2 line for hours on Friday morning as union bus drivers claimed Metro wasn't doing enough to protect them on what they say is a dangerous line. Bus drivers asked supervisors for police escorts after the urine-throwing incident on Saturday, and when they didn't get one, they refused to drive.

"X2 bus operators have chosen to express their fear for safety and will not be taking X2 buses out for the remainder of the day," Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 said in a statement. "Union leadership supports its members in this action."

Metro slammed the move in its own statement, claiming the action was "unauthorized."

"ATU Local 689, the union representing Metrobus Operators, is currently engaged in an unauthorized and potentially unlawful labor action that is significantly impacting riders on the X2 line," the statement reads. "The stated goal by union leadership is to draw attention to safety concerns, specifically bus operator assaults, following an incident on Saturday. This is a subject on which Metro and the union agree: Absolutely no one should be assaulted for doing their job. However, we disagree with impacting Metro customers who are simply trying to get to work and school by Metrobus Operators refusing to provide bus service in a disruptive and unlawful job action."

Metro asserted it had taken steps to protect bus drivers, a claim that prompted another statement from the union.

"Put frankly, it is a bald-faced lie," David Stephen, a spokesman for the union, said in a statement. "Metro has not had a meeting with union leadership about safety in over a year, and the methods that Metro claims it is using to protect workers and riders are not working."

Image via WMATA