Photo used under a Creative Commons license with infosnackhq

TBD On Foot reports that MetroAccess bus drivers plan to hold a rally Monday morning at WMATA’s Hyattsville building to protest what they’re calling “unsafe” working conditions.

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1764 is organizing the protest, and Wayne Baker, the group’s president, told John Hendel that: “If we can get 50 people on that bus along with the others who will come on their own, I think it will be a success.”

WMATA’s information specialist Cathy Asato said the union’s beef is not with WMATA, but with MV Transportation, which has run MetroAccess since 2005.

From TBD:

The union alleges that the California-based MV Transportation, the company that runs the paratransit-vehicle service of MetroAccess, has played a “dangerous game” that skirts federal law in assembling its workers’ schedules. These stretched schedules, which the union says include more than a dozen members who have worked 16- and 24-hour shifts, pose a risk that a driver will fall asleep at the wheel and inadvertently kill someone, according to the union’s statement. The union points to other reports of fatigue-related bus crashes in the region and how “just last week, a Super Shuttle Van crashed on the Dulles Airport Access Highway.”