ATU Legislative Issue Briefs

Each year, the ATU identifies the most pressing issues for our membership and develops key legislative priorities to fight for on Capitol Hill. This year, we are calling for Congress to protect transit workers from violent attacks, require fallback safety drivers on autonomous buses, maintain transit agency labor-management safety committees, increase transit funding, create new workforce development programs, and pass pro-union legislation.

Each Legislative Conference participant will be given this list of legislative priorities to drop off during their meetings on the Hill on Wednesday. Below please find background information for each of these issues. Please review these issue briefs before your meetings and be ready with your personal stories for Members of Congress and their staff. We will be discussing these issues in depth during our conference. If you have any questions about this information, please be sure to raise them during our conference.

ATU 2026 Labor Policy Legislative Priorities

ISSUE #1: Protect Workers’ Right to Organize

Workers across the country continue to face aggressive union-busting campaigns, retaliation, captive audience meetings, and delays in securing first contracts after organizing. Current labor law penalties are too weak to deter employers from violating workers’ rights, leaving many workers unable to freely exercise their right to organize and collectively bargain.

ATU SUPPORTS: The Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act (H.R. 20, Rep. Scott/ S. 852, Sen. Sanders), which would strengthen penalties for labor law violations, prohibit captive audience meetings, protect workers from retaliation, improve the union election process, and establish stronger pathways to achieving first contracts.

ISSUE #2: Workplace Safety and Worker Protections

Workers across industries continue to face dangerous working conditions, extreme heat exposure, workplace violence, fatigue, automation-related safety risks, and insufficient enforcement of workplace safety laws. Federal agencies responsible for worker protection remain underfunded and understaffed.

ATU SUPPORTS: Stronger OSHA protections for heat illness prevention and workplace violence; Increased funding for OSHA, the NLRB, and Department of Labor enforcement agencies; Legislation and regulations addressing rail safety, fatigue, asbestos exposure, and infectious disease protections; Policies ensuring that artificial intelligence and automation are implemented with worker input and strong labor protections.

ISSUE #3: Protect Good Union Jobs Through Federal Investments

Historic federal investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, clean energy, and technology must create high-quality union jobs with strong labor standards. Public investments should not subsidize low-road employers that suppress organizing or undermine labor standards.

ATU SUPPORTS: Strong labor standards tied to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act; Buy America and domestic content requirements; Policies requiring companies receiving federal assistance to provide workers a free and fair opportunity to organize unions; Expanded investment in apprenticeship and workforce development.

ISSUE #4: Economic Security for Working Families

Working families need strong public investments and labor standards that improve quality of life, reduce economic insecurity, and ensure access to essential services and benefits.

ATU SUPPORTS: Paid family and medical leave and paid sick leave for all workers; Affordable, high-quality childcare and elder care investments; Protection and expansion of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; Fair scheduling protections and stronger wage standards; Opposition to cuts to earned benefits and attacks on public sector workers.

ISSUE #5: Defending Collective Bargaining and Public Sector Workers

Public sector workers and federal employees continue to face attacks on collective bargaining rights, privatization efforts, and attempts to weaken civil service protections.

ATU SUPPORTS: The Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act (H.R. 2736, Rep. Norcross / S. 1352, Sen. Hirono), as well as other policy proposals that would grant full collective bargaining rights for federal workers, Transportation Security Administration employees, and Title 38 VA employees.

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ATU 2026 Transportation Policy Legislative Priorities

ISSUE #1: Protect Transit Workers from Assault

Each year, incredibly, there are more than 16,000 reported incidents of transit workers being attacked on the job. That’s more than 40 assaults each day. Our members are under constant attack. They get spit on, punched, stabbed, shot, hijacked, sexually assaulted, and more. When transit workers get attacked, especially when the bus is in motion, everyone inside and outside the vehicle is put in danger.

ATU SUPPORTS: The Bus Operator Safety and Security Act (H.R. 6635, Reps. Figures and Van Drew), requiring new transit buses to be equipped with fully enclosed bus operator workstations, from ceiling to floor. (Included in HR 8870, The BUILD America 250 Act.) We also support a provision providing $10 million for bus barriers included in the FY 2027 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, (THUD) and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill.

ISSUE #2: Require a Fallback Safety Driver on Autonomous Transit Buses

Autonomous bus technology is unproven. Many autonomous vehicles have been in tragic accidents. When technology fails, resulting in an autonomous bus barreling down the street or highway at a high rate of speed, on the verge of killing someone, there needs to be a fallback safety driver ready to step in before it is too late. In transit, just one mistake is all it takes to ruin multiple lives. Bus drivers also do amazing things, assisting elderly passengers and people with disabilities, handling unruly passengers, and stepping up during emergencies. The Federal Transit Program should not be used as a weapon to strip away good union jobs that working families rely upon to survive.

ATU SUPPORTS: Requiring a qualified human operator to be located on board Automated Driving Systems
(ADS)-equipped commercial motor vehicles transporting public transportation and motorcoach passengers. The House Surface Transportation Bill (BUILD America 250 Act) requires a human operator on board autonomous school buses and hazmat vehicles, but NOT transit.

ISSUE #3: Enhance Public Transit Safety

The overwhelming majority of assaults on transit workers come about over fare disputes or enforcing of rules. Unruly passengers often disrupt service operations, discouraging transit dependent people from riding the bus or train. Transit workers are generally on their own as they attempt to keep buses and trains rolling on time, even as chaos breaks out all around them. Transit systems need more eyes and ears. Bus operators cannot and should not be sitting ducks who ride alone. Additional staff is needed on specified lines at designated times to monitor activities and deter disruptive behavior from occurring within the system.

ATU SUPPORTS:

H.R. 6069, the Rapid Intervention and Deterrence for Enhanced Rider Safety Act or the “RIDER Safety Act,” (Rep. Simon) providing funding for “transit support specialists,” personnel responsible for performing a variety of duties designed to provide an added sense of security to transit patrons, deterring and reporting disruptive behavior within transit systems. We also support H.R. 6298, the Safe and Affordable Transit Act, (Rep. Friedman) authorizing operating grants for crime prevention and security. (Pieces of both bills are included in the BUILD America 250 Act).
Preservation of the groundbreaking labor-management safety committees which are charged with developing and approving Congressionally mandated Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans (PTASPs) authorized in the IIJA. (These committees are reauthorized in the BUILD America 250 Act).

ISSUE #4: Increase Public Transit Funding

The FY 2027 House THUD Appropriations bill significantly cuts public transit funding compared to the FY 2026 enacted levels. The bill provides $16.5 billion for public transit in FY 2027, a cut of $4.6 billion (-22 percent) from the FY 2026 enacted level. President Trump’s budget requests $16.3 billion (-23 percent) for public transit in FY 2027. The President’s Budget does not request to continue any advance appropriations under the IIJA, which results in substantial cuts to key transit programs. Every $1 invested in public transit generates $5 in long-term economic returns. Working families all across the U.S. count on the bus or train to get to work, the grocery story, the doctor, and other destinations.

ATU SUPPORTS:

Continuation of advance appropriations for public transit.
Funding levels in the BUILD America 250 Act, which invests nearly $88 billion for transit over five years, an increase from the nearly $70 billion allocated in the IIJA (without advance appropriations).
Providing public transit systems the flexibility to use their funds for operating assistance as needed to avoid
service cuts and expand transit options, including the Stronger Communities through Better Transit Act (H.R. 3449, Rep. Johnson), the Moving Transit Forward Act, (S. 3455, Sen. Van Hollen), and Transit Funding Flexibility Act, (H.R. 5024, Rep. Lawler).

ISSUE #5: Provide for Transit Workforce Development

Transit bus mechanics now require new skills and knowledge, including electric motor repair, computer literacy, and diagnostic troubleshooting. The new skillset has changed the bus maintenance role from that of a traditional mechanic to a technician role, using software and electronic equipment to diagnose and address bus engine error codes. Mechanics also need to learn high-voltage safety procedures to protect employees from the new safety risks presented by battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell electric bus technology. Additional training is also needed for
bus operators, depot staff who use battery chargers, dispatchers who monitor bus charge and reroute buses to meet service needs, and route planners who configure bus routes to accommodate range limitations.

ATU SUPPORTS:

The National Transit Frontline Workforce Training Act (S. 4178 -Van Hollen/ H.R. 8068 - Rep. Wilson), which codifies the Transit Workforce Center at the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Since 2021, TWC has provided direct technical assistance to transit agencies to advance workforce development to train and retain frontline transit workers. (Included in BUILD America 250 Act).
The Transit Workforce Development Act (H.R. 8362, Rep. Wilson), which increases the amount that transit systems must set aside for workforce development training (including registered apprenticeships and other labor-management training programs) under the Low or No Emission Bus Grant Program from 5% to 10%, and applies such requirements to the entire Bus and Bus Facilities Program. (BUILD America 250 does apply the training requirements to the entire Bus Program, but only at the 5% level).

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