News

Fairfax Connector Fast-track to Apprenticeship

Posted September 2022

The Fairfax Connector, owned and managed by Fairfax County, Virginia, is operated and maintained by Transdev North America. The Connector provides bus service connecting residents and visitors with rail and other local bus systems in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. Faced with a shortage of technicians, Transdev worked with the Transit Workforce Center (TWC), FTA’s workforce development technical assistance center operated by the International Transportation Learning Center, late last year to create a bus maintenance apprenticeship program. Transdev established a joint apprenticeship committee (JAC) with Teamsters Local 639 to develop an apprenticeship agreement and work plan collaboratively. Within months, Transdev registered the apprenticeship with the Virginia Department of Labor and launched the program with six apprentices.

With the apprenticeship program in collaboration with Teamsters Local 639 underway, Transdev is working to extend the program to include an agreement with the agency’s other labor union, ATU Local 689. The speed with which this program was developed is commendable and would not have been possible without a cooperative and productive relationship between labor and management. Key players in the effort to establish a joint apprenticeship program include Thomas Reynolds representing Fairfax County’s Transit Services Division, Barry Goldman, Director of Maintenance, Fairfax Connector, Transdev, and John Estes, Business Agent Teamsters Local 639.

For information on establishing a frontline apprenticeship program, please contact James Hall at jhall@transportcenter.org.