[bru-info] Press Release/ PSA: BRU FARE STRIKE

[bru-info at lists.resist.ca]

November 12, 2005 – VANCOUVER

BUS RIDERS UNION FARE STRIKE NOVEMBER 14 - 18

	From November 14th to 18th, 2005, bus riders throughout Greater Vancouver
will be participating in a fare strike called by the Bus Riders Union
(BRU).  Dozens of BRU organizers will be riding the buses throughout the
week encouraging bus riders to participate in the political action.

	“This is an opportunity for transit-dependent people in this region to
send a clear economic and political message to TransLink that their
policies of high fares, privatization and criminalization of bus riders
are unacceptable”, says BRU organizer Zailda Chan.  “Bus riders will be
taking our regular trips on the bus, but we will not be showing passes or
paying our fares when we get on the bus.  We are encouraging bus riders
to tell the bus driver you are with the Bus Riders Union Fare Strike. 
Most drivers understand that we all have a stake in fighting for an
accessible, affordable and fully public transit system.”

	The Fare Strike is part of a year long campaign during which the Bus
Riders Union has been calling on TransLink to lower bus fares and buy
more buses to meet the critical transportation needs of low-income people
and communities.  Despite broad support for the campaign from bus riders,
trade unions, student groups, community organizations and the Vancouver
School Board, TransLink has refused to address the issue of high fares. 
Instead TransLink has continued to pour money into the privatized R.A.V.
line, and on increased enforcement, including arming TransLink security
police with semi-automatic handguns.

	“Bus riders are fed up with TransLink’s policies which are eliminating
transit as a public service and turning it into a cash cow for big
business,” says BRU organizer Jennifer Efting.  “We are calling on
TransLink to meet the basic transportation needs of this region by
lowering fares and putting more clean air buses on the roads.  We are
calling on TransLink to deal with the real safety issues in our transit
system, not with more cops, but by reducing overcrowding and increasing
service.  And we are calling on TransLink to disband a Skytrain police
force which already has an atrocious record of racial profiling and
harassment of people of colour and Aboriginal people in our communities
and is now going to be armed and dangerous.”

	As many as 5 000 people participated in a BRU organized one day fare
strike on January 14th of this year.  On the eve of the municipal
elections, the fare strike will send a clear message that as long as
there is not social or environmental justice for low-income transit
dependent communities, there will be no peace for TransLink.

	“We see this fare strike as part of process,” continues Efting.  “We are
building grassroots power of transit-dependent communities to have a
voice in decisions which impact us profoundly.  We’re not going to sit
around while TransLink takes more and more resources out of our
communities and hands it out in the form of lucrative contracts to
SNC-Lavalin and other corporate criminals.  We’re not going to let them
go ahead with these privatization projects and run our bus system into
the ground.  Bus riders and taking action now and we will continue to
fight in the future, because our communities rely on this public
service!”

Media Contacts:  BRU Office  --  604 215 2775   Jennifer Efting  --  604
255 4745

Bus Riders Union
407-119 West Pender Street, Vancouver
(604) 215-2775
http://bru.resist.ca/
bru at resist.ca