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Metro’s largest union drops election appeal

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WASHINGTON — Metro’s largest union dropped its appeal Monday of a federal court’s decision ordering new elections.

The July decision found “clear violations” by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 of federal rules governing 2015 union elections that included delayed notice and irregularities in who was allowed to run.

The union had filed a notice of appeal in August while the local and Metro remained in heated contract talks, and lawyers were due to file the first briefs in the appeal by Monday evening.

Instead, the union filed a notice Monday to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond that it is dropping the case.

That means new elections will be required. Without a court order, the union’s next elections had been planned for November 2018.

In early September, the union gave up on negotiations with Metro over a new contract after more than a year of working without a new agreement. The contract details will now be decided by a three-member arbitration panel.

Metro fare evasion crackdown sparks police confrontation concerns

WASHINGTON — Amid complaints that Metro’s fare evasion crackdown is leading to people being pinned to the ground or pepper-sprayed unnecessarily by police, Metro’s general manager said Thursday that the crackdown is necessary to ensure that other rules are followed and that Metro gets all of the funding it is entitled to. “The way WMATA treats its riders, particularly people of color, is unacceptable,” Brianna Musselman told the Metro Board Thursday. She recorded video of a man being pinned to the ground and pepper-sprayed by Metro police at the Gallery Place station in June, during an encounter that began when officers said the man tried to enter the rail system without paying.
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