Former employees allege discrimination and nepotism at Pittsburgh Regional Transit

Sascha Craig had worked for Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) for over 30 years when the organization attempted to fire him in 2020 for illegally claiming less than six hours of overtime. He claimed it was for challenging a COVID-era uniform policy that prohibited him from wearing a Black Lives Matter face mask while on the job.

"They just wanted to punish me and hold me off of work for as long as they could. So yes, there is retaliation, and yes, it is racially motivated," Craig said at a press conference.

Craig, a former bus driver trainer, is one of roughly 60 former PRT employees making up the Coalition of Concerned Transit Workers who claim that Allegheny County's largest transit agency is rife with discrimination, nepotism, and cliquishness that results in preferential treatment for white employees and repercussions for those who speak up.

A handful of the coalition’s members, including Craig, aired their complaints at a press conference Friday morning before entering the PRT's monthly board meeting to express concern directly to the organization's heads.

PRT, formerly the Port Authority of Allegheny County, stands by its prior employment and disciplinary action, including termination, according to an emailed statement sent to Pittsburgh City Paper by PRT Deputy Chief Communications Officer Adam Brandolph.

PRT employs 2,600 people to provide transit across Pittsburgh and Allegheny County and is operated by an 11-member board, according to the county and federally funded organization's website.

At the press conference near PRT's Downtown headquarters, Craig detailed how, at the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, he wore his Black Lives Matter face mask on the job for months without complaint.

When Port Authority implemented a policy in July 2020 banning political masks, Craig, two other employees, and the union representing them sued PRT. Two days after Craig testified in federal court on Nov. 10, 2020, he says PRT attempted to fire him for timesheet fraud.

"If you don't think that [PRT]... is vindictive, I'm a prime example," Craig told the board members inside the morning meeting. "I implore you to launch an investigation on the disparate treatment that your African American employees and your female employees, to a certain extent, receive from this company."

Chaz Williams, the chairperson of the coalition and a former bus driver for PRT, said he joined the alliance after he alleges he was fired as the result of racist and retaliatory internal practices.

Williams says that in 2021, he got into an altercation with a pedestrian crossing at a red light. Williams says that the pedestrian, who happened to be the friend of the former PRT Chairman Jeffrey Letwin, leaned on his connections to have him fired.

"We are the victims who are punished for matters other than our actual job performance. You have a serious problem dealing with the Black employees, and it needs to be addressed and brought to a resolution."

Beyond racial discrimination, another member of the coalition claimed they were terminated after seeking federal intervention when they were passed over for a job in what they view as a clear case of nepotism. PRT did not address the specific circumstances of any of the claims.

Darnell "Shelly" Alston, a former employee of PRT's human resources department, says she was near-guaranteed a position hiring bus drivers in April of 2022. But while she was in the hospital for medical leave later that month, she says she learned the position had gone to the department manager's son.

Alston filed a complaint to the Pittsburgh Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Sept. 2022 and received a right to sue in May 2023, according to documents obtained by Pittsburgh City Paper. Alston says she was fired less than two weeks later for "poor performance."

Alston says she should have known. When she started at PRT in 2020, Alston noted an employee relations associate told her, "Whatever you know about HR, it doesn't apply here."

"When you're in an abusive relationship, you feel like things will get better, and so you stay," Alston says. "But then you find out that they're not going to get any better."

Alston filed a lawsuit against PRT in July. It's one of four federal suits former employees filed against PRT since 2021, alleging racial, religious or medical discrimination.

Brandolph with PRT said the organization requires annual employment opportunities and unconscious bias training for all employees and intends to implement additional training for managers and supervisors later this year.

"PRT acknowledges that while we all hold unconscious beliefs, they should never play a role in employee discipline," the statement read. It did not address the lawsuits in response to CP's questions.

Craig was reinstated in his position after suing, along with two other employees, over the organization’s mask policy.

He retired later in 2020, and while he says he's happy to be out, he wishes his more than three decades of employment with PRT didn't end the way it did.