Union wants Louisiana transit exec to resign after racial comments

A union that represents public transportation workers is calling for the head of the Baton Rouge, La., public transit system to resign for saying he would “love” to have fewer black bus drivers, because it would help attract white riders.

The Washington, D.C.-based Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) said Baton Rouge Capital Area Transit System (CATS) CEO Bob Mirabito should be forced to resign for the comments, which they said were far out of line. 

“This type of outrageous, backward and racist comment by the head of a public transit agency should not be tolerated,” ATU International President Larry Hanley said in a statement. “It is a black eye on CATS and the city of Baton Rouge. Our bus drivers are upstanding, tax-paying members of this community. This racially charged insult to the hardworking CATS employees who safely transport the people of Baton Rouge every day cannot go unchallenged. We call on Mirabito to step down immediately.”

{mosads}Mirabito apologized for the remarks earlier this week, after they drew national attention. 

“I apologize. It was never my intention to offend anyone, and I am sorry that my comments on a recent podcast have distracted our community from our continued push to move our transit system forward,” he said in a statement released by the agency.

“My comment, heard in its entirety, was not racially motivated, and I apologize that is the impression it has given people,” he continued. 

The original comments from Mirabito were made in a podcast interview with a local journalist last week, according to Louisiana media reports.

Mirabito said in the interview that having more drivers who were not African-American would “match the demographics of Baton Rouge.”

“I don’t see the color of somebody’s skin, OK,” Mirabito said in the interview, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

“CATS is, I think, actually 95 percent African-American,” he continued. “And unfortunately, our demographics don’t match Baton Rouge. I would love to have a workforce that matched the demographics of Baton Rouge, because I think there are some people out there who may not ride a CATS bus because they don’t like the color of the operator’s skin.”

The transit union, which represents CATS employees, said Mirabito’s apology was not enough.

“Apparently, Bob Mirabito hasn’t been paying attention to the news lately,” Hanley said. “If he was a police chief, school administrator, or University president, people would be calling for his head. Fifty years ago people were marching in Selma to stop this type of Jim Crow mentality, and today people are still marching to fight racism in our country.”