Union Chief Slams Lack of Federal Standards for Transit Workers

Federal mandates are needed to ensure bus drivers, flight attendants, transit workers and other transportation workers have protective gear because a patchwork of employer responses to the pandemic has put some workers at risk, a union leader plans to tell lawmakers on Wednesday.

Inconsistent practices in the face of coronavirus across the U.S. transportation system have been inadequate and mandatory safety rules are needed, Larry Willis, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, said in written testimony prepared for a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

“Let’s be clear: these failures and inactions have directly caused infections and cost lives ...