Circulator bus drivers are currently on strike. Their action recalls the D.C. transit work stoppages of the 1970s, which culminated in the 1978 Metro wildcat strike.
Later that summer, contract negotiations were not going well. Operators had missed out on a cost-of-living adjustment two years earlier, and a group of young drivers were determined to make sure it would not happen again. To organize, they would have to overcome racial divisions.
The coalition of Black and young White drivers challenged union leadership in a series of contentious meetings over the summer of 1978. Because the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act prohibited federal employees from striking, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 president George Davis could have faced heavy penalties if he was seen as encouraging them, and tension between union leadership and rank-and-file members grew.So did the size of meetings.
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