Rise in violence on Milwaukee County buses has operators pleading for help

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Delegates at the Milwaukee Area Labor Council spotlight such attacks and pledged to support the workers on the front lines on Wednesday, Sept. 6. 

"I've had more bad days than good days I must say," said Cynthia Simpson, Milwaukee County Bus operator.

For seven years, Simpson has put on the uniform, but no day was worse than Aug. 15, when a driver began following her near Sherman and Center. He rolled down his window, revealing the gun he was pointing at her.

"He got alongside of me and um," said Simpson.

Shots were not fired then. Just days later at Sherman and Capitol, a passenger on a county bus shot another passenger, then walked off. 

"We had a passenger crawl across the dash and grab the steering wheel 4:00 in the morning. We've had other passengers grab the hands of the operator while they're moving down the road," said Donnell Shorter, President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998.

A request for some 50 officers to start a new transit security team passed out of the committee this week and now heads to the full Milwaukee County Board. The cost would exceed roughly $3 million presently spent on transit security. 

"I do want to hear from the county exec. I also want to hear from Sheriff Ball. You know both of them, they're over the whole county and it feels like when it comes down to county transit there's asterisks next to it saying we're not over that part of the county," said Shorter. 

Delegates with the Milwaukee Area Labor Council met Wednesday, Sept. 6, focusing on safety for workers in the public eye.

"We didn't take any time off during the pandemic. We're essential workers. We're out there to perform a job. Any of these union men and women will tell you that an injury to one of us is an injury to all of us," said Raza Siddiqui, President of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians local 41. 

It has been over two weeks since the threat on Cynthia Simpson's life, and since then, she relived that fear hearing of two more attacks on Milwaukee County buses involving guns. The attack on Sherman and Capitol, as well as another near Sixth and Wisconsin. 

"I'm in a space. I've never been in this space before, never, never been in this space before, just to come to work to make a living to take care of myself," said Simpson.