Georgetown University students rallied Oct. 2 in support of Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle (GUTS) drivers as the university moves ahead with plans to transfer drivers to a third-party vendor.

Nearly 80 students denounced the university’s plans, which would make drivers subcontractors under the private company Abe’s Transportation, meaning they would lose access to most university-based benefits. The students chanted slogans — such as “Don’t cut GUTS” and “Workers united will never be defeated” — during the rally, which was organized by the Georgetown Coalition for Workers’ Rights (GCWR), a student group advocating for labor issues on campus.

Elinor Clark (CAS ’27), GCWR’s facilities team lead, said the university was disrespecting GUTS drivers after it declined to reconsider its plans following a community petition that garnered over 1,160 signatures.

“Georgetown University made it clear in their response that they have no intention of listening to the workers or the students or the community at large, and so we’re out here today making sure that they have to listen, and we will be as loud as we can and be as present as we can so that Georgetown cannot ignore us,” Clark told The Hoya.

Rally participants began in Red Square and marched to the Leavey Terrace to chant at the fifth floor of Regents Hall, where the Advisory Committee on Business Practices (ACBP), a body advising the university’s business policies and commitment to social justice, was meeting.

The rally was part of GCWR’s “week of action,” which included “solidarity rides” with GUTS drivers. GCWR will also table throughout Homecoming, which Clark said is to encourage graduates to pressure the university through social networks and donations.

In a speech at the rally, Ethan Henshaw (CAS ’26) — president of the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA), Georgetown’s student government, which endorsed the GCWR petition — said the university is prioritizing finances over the drivers.

“It’s a way to cut a couple dollars when the budget is tight and they’re trying to make room for other projects, but it is such a small piece of the puzzle and it barely moves the wheel,” Henshaw said at the rally. “They’re playing with the livelihoods of people and families over a change that does little to move the margins.”

In an email to the petitioners, David Green, the university’s chief operating officer, cited university budget constraints and a Washington, D.C. law requiring private bus fleets to convert to 50% low-or-zero-emission buses by 2030 and 100% by 2045, echoing prior comments made to The Hoya by a university spokesperson. A university spokesperson previously said not moving to a third-party vendor and remaining in compliance with the law would cost $60 million.

Rosie Click — vice president of the Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees (GAGE), a union for graduate workers and teaching assistants — said all labor groups should unite to support GUTS drivers.

“It’s really important for all the unions across campus — the RA union, GAGE, facilities workers, dining workers — to stand in solidarity when one of our unions is under attack,” Click said at the rally. “Georgetown wants to take these union members outside of that union and decrease the bargaining power of all workers across campus.”

Green said the university is working directly with SEIU Local 1199, the drivers’ union, and a university spokesperson previously said it will collaborate with the union.

“The university respects the collective bargaining process and is in compliance with its union contract with 1199SEIU as part of this ongoing process,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya Sept. 22.

Ted Bergman (CAS ’27), a member of GCWR who attended the rally, said Georgetown was not following its Jesuit values with its plans for GUTS drivers.

“We want to make sure that Georgetown holds in line with their Jesuit values that they espouse, especially how they treat their workers, and we demand that they treat their workers with dignity and respect, not as an afterthought,” Bergman told The Hoya.

“Students and community members want their voices heard, and their voices are important,” Bergman added. “There’s so many of us, it’s a shame that the administration doesn’t want to follow what we think and treat their workers with respect.”

Clark said it was important for the protest to take place while ACBP was meeting because it would force university administrators to pay attention.

“We can stand in front of Healy and shout until our face turns blue, but at the end of the day, Georgetown will hole up in their meeting rooms and try to tune us out,” Clark said. “By standing here outside of the actual room where the ACBP is meeting, we are forcing them to hear us. We are forcing them to listen to us, to see us, to listen to the workers, to see the workers.”

Clark said the university needs to understand that its financial decisions can have serious impacts on the drivers.

“There are bus drivers in that meeting as well, and it is an appeal to the Georgetown administration’s humanity, because Georgetown administration likes to act as if their actions are disengaged,” Clark said. “But the reality is that their decisions affect real people, and we know that these decisions are bad decisions.”

The student advocacy comes three weeks after The Hoya reported that Abe’s Transportation could change many drivers’ benefits to more limited offerings, including switching off the university’s expansive healthcare and retirement packages. Drivers have said switching from the university’s health care plan to that of Abe’s Transportation would reduce their overall coverage, particularly for preexisting conditions.

The drivers will remain eligible for tuition assistance, a program covering up to 67% of tuition, for five years, while their dependents will remain eligible for 10 years. 

A university spokesperson said the university believes drivers will not experience a significant change in benefits as Abe’s Transportation employees.

“Georgetown is committed to ensuring that any current employees impacted by this transition receive employment with comparable compensation and benefits, unless they accept another position with the University,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya.

Darius Wagner (CAS ’27), vice president of GUSA, said he met with a GUTS driver who had worked with the university for 15 years.

“This is a Hoya that has given 15 years of his life to ensuring that Hoyas have access to the greatness of D.C., that they can commute to internships, that they can get out of a campus that is stressful at times,” Wagner said at the rally. “But now, because the administration is making the decision to subcontract the workers, we’re pulling the rug out from underneath someone that gave 15 years of his life and forcing them to start over.”

Clark said student advocacy will continue until the university reverses course on its plans.

“Georgetown students will not be threatened by the administration — we will not be silenced,” Clark said. “We know our rights. We know the long history of student activism on campus. And seldom are the students on the wrong side of history.”