Dozens of CARTA employees and supporters rallied along Market Street Sunday afternoon in a push for the transportation agency to restore hazard pay for its drivers and better recognize the struggle they faced in the past year of the pandemic.
Lakecha Strickland, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1212, said the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority’s decision to end hazard pay for its drivers in January was a “slap in the face” to those who have been on the front lines for 12 months. The union said about one in five local drivers has contracted COVID-19.
“Not only are we dealing with the pandemic, we are dealing with mental illness and simple assault along with the virus raging through our households,” Strickland told the crowd. “Our lives and our family’s lives have been put in jeopardy.”
CARTA employees said the hazard pay has been critical to helping them buy extra, and necessary, protective gear and cleaning supplies they said the authority is failing to provide. The union accused CARTA leadership of giving hazard pay to its upper management, despite their not being on the front line, and providing raises and promotions to themselves around the time the extra pay was cut for drivers.
James Boles, a CARTA employee for 13 years, was hospitalized with COVID-19 in November and placed on a ventilator in the intensive care unit. The virus affected his heart, he said, resulting in his now having a pacemaker. CARTA is not listening to its drivers and taking the steps to keep them safe, he said.