Capital Bikeshare employees who want to unionize are seeking support ahead of a hearing with the National Labor Relations Board next week.

In a petition on Coworker.org, Ursula Sandstrom, a Capital Bikeshare bike checker, asks for Alta Bicycle Share, the company that operates D.C’s bikeshare and was recently sold, and its new owner, REQX, to support the union voluntarily formed with Transport Workers Union Local 100.

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.

“Over 85 percent of our workforce has signed cards to unionize with TWU Local 100. We asked management to voluntarily recognize the union and they refused,” Nichole Procopenko, a Capital Bikeshare bike checker involved in the movement, said via email. “Alta has hired Jackson Lewis, which is an absolutely notorious union-busting law firm.”

Procopenko added that REQX attempted to negotiate terms with TWU without workers involved, which the transit union refused, and is contesting “several of the union cards, effectively shutting out our coworkers from joining the union and joining the collective bargaining unit.”

The National Labor Relations Board is tasked with certifying unions through a process that involves checking employee names against the cards submitted. A hearing on the contested cards will take place on November 10th at 9 a.m.

“After this, they NLRB will hold an election where workers are allowed to vote,” Procopenko said. “However, we seek to have the union voluntarily recognized before that. If the cards are successfully contested we will have a smaller bargaining unit and less solidarity across the board with our fellow workers.”