LORTON, Va. (FOX 5 DC) - Unionized transit workers at a privatized WMATA bus garage in northern Virginia have announced they are going on strike early Thursday.
Brian Wivell, a spokesman for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, says Transdev workers will begin their strike at 3:30 a.m. at the Cinder Bed Bus Garage located at 7901 Cinder Bed Road in Lorton.
Transdev is a French multinational corporation that manages the Cinder Bed Bus Garage. It is the first privately operated WMATA bus garage in more than 40 years, according to a news release.
Wivell tells FOX 5 that bus operators, mechanics, utility workers and facilities maintenance workers are protesting the company's "unfair labor practices."
This is the union's first strike at WMATA since 1978, the release states. They have been in negotiations since February.
"Bus operators and maintenance workers at Cinder Bed have been repeatedly subject to illegal surveillance of peaceful picket actions which have made reaching a fair contract for these workers impossible," according to the release.
The Cinder Bed Bus Garage services around five percent of MetroBus routes. Those routes include the REX, 29K, 29G, 29H, 29C, 29N, 29W, 17B, 17G, 17H, 17M, 17K, S80, S91, 18P, 18G, 18J, and 18H.
In August, workers voted unanimously to authorize a strike if the bargaining team thought it was necessary.
Metro expects the strike to continue Friday. Metro says it "regret the inconvenience to its customers and will continue to monitor this dispute."
Read the release in full below: