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Minneapolis bus drivers are refusing to help police transport protesters to jail

29 May 2020, 13:30 by Jeva Lange

As tensions between police and protesters in Minneapolis reached a boiling point following the death of George Floyd, the city's bus drivers have made it abundantly clear which side they're on. The driver's union, ATU Local 1005, issued a statement of solidarity on Thursday, with some of its drivers going as far as to refuse to use their buses to help law enforcement transport protesters to jail.

"As a transit worker and union member, I refuse to transport my class and radical youth," one Minneapolis bus driver, Adam Burch, told the labor publication Payday. "An injury to one is an injury to all. The police murdered George Floyd and the protest against is completely justified and should continue until their demands are met."

The union shared Burch's sentiment. "This system has failed all of us in the working class, from the coronavirus to the economic crisis we are facing," their statement read. "But the system has failed people of color and black Americans and black youth more than anyone else."

The union added:

In ATU we have a saying: "NOT ONE MORE" when dealing with driver assaults, which in some cases have led to members being murdered while doing their job. We say "NOT ONE MORE" [to the] execution of a black life by the hands of the police. NOT ONE MORE! JUSTICE FOR GEORGE FLOYD! [ATU Local 1005]

Payday notes that "it would be illegal for [the union] to call for a wildcat strike," though their statement makes the drivers' opinion heard. Meanwhile, transit workers have also launched a group called "Union Members for #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd," assembling those who "are willing to do what we can to ensure our labor is not used to help the Minneapolis Police Department shut down calls for justice."