Two hundred MetroAccess workers went on strike Monday, protesting low wages and what they say is bad faith bargaining from WMATA contractor Transdev. The 200 workers include paratransit drivers, utility, dispatchers, maintenance workers, and road supervisors at the Hubbard Road MetroAccess garage in Landover, Maryland.

A Metro spokesperson says they’re monitoring the situation but there are “currently no impacts to customers.”

The workers overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike a month ago. The union, the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 689, says the strike will last until they get a contract “that puts our members on a pathway to the middle class.” They’ve been negotiating with Transdev for two months. The next bargaining sessions are scheduled for Tuesday and next Tuesday, August 9th.

In a statement, Transdev said they were disappointed the union chose to strike.

“Transdev had no prior knowledge about the timing of this action and continues to bargain in good faith with the ATU,” spokesperson Mitun Seguin wrote. “Together with Metro Access, Transdev will try to provide as much service as possible with available alternate workforce, but the service will be limited.

“We continue to hope that we will be able to come to resolution quickly.”

Workers picketed with signs and speeches from ATU Local 689 President Raymond Jackson Monday morning.

First shift at Hubbard Road! pic.twitter.com/1gx9wT4Ehq

— ATU Local 689 (@ATULocal689) August 1, 2022

The union says Transdev is hiring workers for $20 an hour in Baltimore, but won’t do the same for workers in D.C. They’re also hiring workers at Hubbard Road at higher wages, but won’t pay current employees the same wage, the union says. Transdev is refusing to agree to a three-year contract.

Union officials are also highlighting the understaffing of the Hubbard Road garage – operating 100-plus workers short. That deficit has forced workers to work at least 48 hours a week, according to the union.

“This is a company that is categorically uninterested in doing what is right for transit workers or riders,” the union said in a statement. “Transdev’s only interest is to skim public money into their pockets by underpaying their workers.”

All MetroAccess service is contracted out to other companies including Transdev, National Express, First Transit, and Challenger Transportation. They work out of five facilities – Hubbard Road, Marlowe Heights, and Capitol Heights in Prince George’s County, Gaithersburg in Montgomery County, and Lorton in Virginia.

The union also wants Metro to stop using private contractors for public service. In 2019, bus drivers out of a privately-contracted WMATA Cinder Bed Road bus garage run by Transdev, went on strike for 85 days. They ultimately got WMATA to move the garage back in-house.