Realistic Scheduling Options for Single Parents At the MBTA

We, the undersigned, by our signatures below serve notice to the MBTA (Mass Bay Transit Authority) of the growing dissatisfaction of the many single parents who work as bus, rail and streetcar operators that have small children and no help to care for them.

The hours that the Authority requires us/them to work are usually before any childcare facilities open, and we/they are also required to work hours long after all childcare facilities are closed. Also the inconsistencies by which we/they are forced to live our/their lives on a 3-4 month ever changing schedule, holiday schedule, school vacation schedule etc, is unrealistic. No one person or daycare facility would be able to support such an inconsisitent, unpredictable schedule.

Being subjected to the stress regarding childcare and having no reliable consistent help, many single parents are being forced out of their jobs and this needs to stop. The MBTA needs to recognize their growing diversified workforce which includes many single parents, predominantly African American women, and address these scheduling conflicts immediately.

These conflicts put unfair stress and strain on working single parents who are trying to support there families and it is unhealthy to put children in such strained, unstable and insecure patterns of parental absenteeism.