While the KC Streetcar is booming, you can’t say the same for other area public transit in the region. In the last year, a number of municipalities have cut public transportation. Public transit in the region is funded and approved through an absolutely asinine patchwork system of funding and contracts from each individual municipality. The lack of dedicated funding mechanisms has led to a weak public transit system less than 18 months from the World Cup, which will bring tens of thousands of people from across the globe to the city.
Members from both Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1287 and Teamsters Local 41 have both been impacted by these recent cuts.
Teamsters Local 41 members employed by Transdev (a.k.a., First Transit) previously ran the following lines in Independence, MO: 301 Green, 302 Blue, 303 Purple, 304 Yellow, 305 Orange and 306 Red. All of these lines, seen above, will stop operating on Dec. 31, 2024. In place of the fixed-route service, Independence will instead offer IRIS On-Demand transit, a non-union service operated by contract workers.
Independence, MO is making these cuts due to budget concerns, a common theme with other municipalities. This is expected to hurt working-class residents who may travel to other municipalities for work via public transit.
If you ask Mary Tackett, who worked for Transdev for 14 years and served as the Teamsters Local 41 union steward for the drivers, transit helps people in her community of all stripes and backgrounds. Workers and the elderly, who can’t afford vehicles, rely on public transit to acccess their jobs, the grocery store, and more. Mary, who is almost 80, has lived in Independence, MO since she was 10 years old. Since the news came out, she has been lobbying for transit funding to return to support the people of Independence, MO via a functioning bus system.
Tackett firmly believes that the plan to replace buses, which includes the non-union IRIS is not adequate. Tackett, who feels like the government has left behind working-people in their policy planning, has heard from other riders and drivers who say that IRIS service is unreliable and inconsistent.
“They want to build these huge hotels and nice restaurants, but they never think about how the workers will get there. That doesn’t help working people,” said Mary Tackett.
ATU Local 1287 members have been impacted by numerous service cuts and are bracing for the new KCATA budget, which, while not yet approved, could see as many as 160 union members lose their jobs–a serious blow to the union and to public transit in the region.ATU Local 1287 joins AFSCME Local 500 as being one of two predominantly black unions in the metro. A blow to Local 1287 would deal serious damage to recovering black and minority neighborhoods in urban core, home to many drivers.
“The city has to realize the importance of public transportation right now,” says ATU Local 1287 President Nic Miller, who suggests that union members reach out to their elected officials on city council to defend public transportation and stand in solidarity with their fellow union members.
“There is no way around this: we need to come together as a region and pass transit-funding mechanisms. We can’t keep half-assing public transit if we want to be a serious city or economic hub. Our failure to fund public transit not only hurts union members who operate it, but the public who rely on it to get to work,” said Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance (KCRTA) Chair Tristin Amezcua-Hogan. “You don’t have to use transit to understand the enormous economic benefits for working-class people in a time where someone may spend $1,000 a month on their car, between maintenance, gas, monthly payment, and insurance.”
The Kansas City-region spends dramatically less per person on public transit than peer, or similar-sized, cities.
It is likely that there is a campaign in the near future to put transit funding mechanisms on the ballot for voters to approve in Clay, Wyandotte, Jackson, and Johnson Counties. These transit funding mechanisms, often in the form of a small sales tax, can raise serious funds, not just for public transit, but also for infrastructure needs like sidewalks, bridges, road conditions, and more, making them broadly popular with people who do not use transit too. The more people who use public transit and the better public transit is, the less traffic is on the road in front of you.
Tristin Amezcua-Hogan is the Editor of The Labor Beacon and a member of LIUNA Local 264. Tristin also serves as the Director of Communications for the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO and the Chair of the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance.
Tristin grew up as the son of a UA Local 669 member in Tecumseh, KS and the great-nephew of George C. Amis, longtime leader of the United Rubberworkers (now USW Local 307) in Kansas. Growing up in rural Kansas as the child of teen parents, Tristin quickly came to appreciate the life-changing benefit of a union job.
Tristin and his partner, Rebeca Amezcua-Hogan, are residents of the Westside, Kansas City, MO's historic Mexican neighborhood. They are proud members of Kansas City's New Reform Temple.
