Watch the videos below for tips on making your Transit Equity Day a success!

This year, Transit Equity Day (TED) will take place on Feb. 5, 2024. TED is a great opportunity for local unions to join with transit advocates, riders, environmental groups, public officials and others in ways that are simple but with deep and far-reaching impacts on why public transit is a civil right and has been essential for your community throughout the pandemic and beyond.

In 2019 for Transit Equity Day, two Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) locals in Connecticut teamed up to host events in their communities to honor Rosa Parks on her birthday and uplift transit equity as a civil right.

ATU Local 1336 in Bridgeport and Local 443 in Stamford organized individual actions in their respective cities while leveraging the opportunity to promote Transit Equity Day on buses that connect their two cities.

In Bridgeport, ATU Local 1336 President/Business Agent Mustafa Salahuddin and members hosted a rally to educate community members and bus riders about Rosa Parks and her act of civil disobedience of not giving up her seat on Dec.1, 1955. Local officials spoke at this event. In addition, designated seats on their buses were reserved for Rosa Parks to honor her.

Just south west of Local 1336, Local 443 President/Business Agent Veronica Chavers organized a splash in Stamford, Conn. With the then Mayor and other public officials of Stamford in attendance, Chavers and her members decorated multiple buses to commemorate Rosa Parks while offering donuts, coffee, t-shirts and educational material to attendees.

Together, President Salahuddin and President Chavers put Transit Equity Day on the map in Connecticut. The following year in 2021, ATU local unions organized statewide actions that were widely attended and garnered strong media coverage.

Impacts:

• Transit workers were the central focus of these community actions–lifting their essential work each day, which is often unnoticed.

• Awareness of Transit Equity Day, the importance of access and the historical context of Rosa Parks act of civil disobedience would lead to statewide participation in 2020.

• The conversation of the importance of public transit to empower local communities and as a means to combat climate change would be a central focus, adding to the overall organizing efforts of transit workers throughout the year.

• National ATU participation would also be seen in 2020 and 2021 such as at Local 265 in Santa Clara (who teamed up with DSA and the Sierra Club), New Jersey, and in Eau Claire, Wisconsin–both through rallies and through saving bus seats for Rosa.

Key Takeaways:

• The essential value of transit workers come into greater focus during these events and can in turn leverage Transit Equity Day as a means to put the workers at the forefront for general conversation among community members and public officials.

• Riders are enthusiastic about celebrating the civil actions of Rosa Parks. Most people have a deep connection to her plight and her efforts to integrate transit.

• Honoring transit equity as a civil right is a way to engage community officials, to enlighten them about the importance of transit not just as a public need but as a means to combat the climate crisis and environmental injustice.

• Transit Equity Day can be educational and fun. While distributing information on materials is one way to open peoples minds about the importance of transit, giveaways such as t-shirts, coffee and donuts will help attract more people in the community who may not have previously understood the importance of transit and transit workers let alone transit equity as their civil right.

Organizing Checklist:

• Start your organizing early. Now is the time to engage with the Transit Equity Network to plan your actions and get the information and materials you need. Connect with your national union to find out if there are resources on a national level that they can provide.

• Connect with others. Talk to representatives from other locals in your geographic region to find out if they want to join in with your local community actions and use the opportunity of connecting bus lines to broaden your outreach. In Connecticut, other groups collaborated with the locals such as the Sierra Club and the CT Roundtable for Climate and Jobs.

• Decide on your goal in advance. What does success mean to you? What would you want your community members and public officials and transit riders to take away from the Transit Equity Day event you plan? Is it for them to understand the importance of essential workers’ hazard pay and continued safety with regards to COVID-19? Or to advocate for more access for riders? Deciding this advance can help you to shape your actions and who should be involved.

• Decide on your scale. Transit Equity Day has become successful on a union level by simply reserving a seat for Rosa, which bus operators and union members have the ability to do. The simple acts alone have garnered enough attention to attract the media and eventually raise the national consciousness to understand the meaning of transit equity and understand it as a civil right.

• Amplify. The Transit Equity Network will have a variety of materials to share with all who plan actions, including content for Op-Eds, news releases, social media toolkits and graphics so that you can create materials to distribute. Register your action here >>