George Floyd solidarity: Minneapolis bus drivers refuse to transport police or arrested protesters

Unionised bus drivers in Minneapolis have pledged not to drive buses taking protesters to jail or police officers, in solidarity with the thousands of people in the city who have taken part in protests following the murder of George Floyd by a member of the Minneapolis police force.

The pledge commits the signees "to ensure our labor is not used to help the Minneapolis Police Department shut down calls for justice", speak to their coworkers, and called for the "four officers involved in the murder of George Floyd" to be immediately arrested and prosecuted. The Amalgamated Transit Union, representing more than 200,000 public transit workers in the U.S. and Canada, issued a solidarity statement which described the use of public transport to ferry police officers or arrested protesters as a "misuse", and said:

"As our members—bus drivers—have the right to refuse work they consider dangerous or unsafe during the pandemic, so too Minneapolis bus drivers—our members—have the right to refuse the dangerous duty of transporting police to protests and arrested demonstrators away from these communities where many of these drivers live... If any good is to come of this, we in the labor movement and the nation must unite to stop the systemic cycle of injustice, racism and hatred that plagues our country."