APRIL 4 -- TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano released the following statement to the press April 4, 2018 denouncing Mayor de Blasio for not attending services for St. Clair Richards Stephens and Stephen Livecchi, who were killed on the job a week apart in late March. Richards Stephens’ wake and funeral service were held on March 29th and 30th in the Bronx. Livecchi’s wake and funeral were held on April 2nd and 3rd in Queens.
“Mayor de Blasio should be ashamed of himself. Two transit workers were killed on the job – and the mayor couldn’t be bothered over the last week to attend either of their wakes or funeral services. He didn’t even send a representative on his behalf. He made no gesture of any kind to recognize that these two hardworking men lost their lives in service to the city of New York. That is just despicable. It’s a slap in the face of every bus and subway worker in the city. We move nearly 8 million New Yorkers in the five boroughs, including hundreds of thousands of NYC public school students and municipal workers, every single day. Without MTA transit workers like St. Clair Richards Stephens and Stephen Livecchi nobody could get to their job, or school, or anywhere else. The city couldn’t function. Transit workers will never forget Mayor de Blasio’s total lack of respect.”
Richards Stephens, a 23-year-old Trackworker from the Bronx, suffered a fatal injury when he fell from an underground ledge in a subway tunnel in Harlem on March 20th. He started work at NYC Transit just six months earlier.
Livecchi, 59, a Helper at the College Point bus depot in Queens, was struck and killed by a bus in the facility on March 27th. A Queens resident, Livecchi had been on the job for 37 years and was on the verge of retirement.
The Mayor has four representatives on the MTA board. None of them attended either. The elected officials and transit executives who did pay their respects included:
New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul; N.Y. State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon; City Council Speaker Corey Johnson; MTA Chairman Joe Lhota; MTA Managing Director Ronnie Hakim; and NYC Transit President Andy Byford. NY1 news ran the story as part of an all afternoon news loop today, April 4, 2018.
1800 transit workers came to Albany on March 27th to lobby legislators in the Senate and Assembly, pushing our legislative agenda, which includes fixing the Tier 6 pension, protecting the jobs of our Subway Conductors, supporting plans to beef up funding for the MTA, giving grievance rights to our School Bus Drivers and Monitors, protecting our members' families from the effects of diesel exhaust, and supporting efforts to blunt the expected impacts of the Janus v. AFSCME decision. Lobby Day was also an occasion to renew ties and unite as a TWU union family. Enjoy the highlight photos.
MARCH 15 -- Quill Connolly Day celebrates our founders: TWU Local 100 honored the memory of Irish martyr James Connolly, a hero of the 1916 Easter Rising, and the man he inspired, Mike Quill, the Founder of the TWU. A festive evening with traditional Irish fare was enlivened by speeches from TWU International President John Samuelsen, who spoke of the cause of a united Ireland, and from RMT Assistant General Secretary Steve Hedley, representing the transit workers of Britain. Hedley gave an impassioned defense of Irish Republican socialism and industrial unionism. RMT President Sean Hoyle also spoke, recalling the words of the great Bob Crow, who helped cement the longstanding friendship between the RMT and the TWU and who was sorely missed at this event.
Performing at the event was the Irish string band, the Murphy Beds, and the Niall O’Leary Irish Dance Studio. Local 100 Director of Communications Jim Gannon acted as MC for the evening, introducing President Tony Utano, who in turn introduced John Samuelsen. Enjoy the photos and the music.
MARCH 8, 2018 -- In a copyrighted story, AM New York showcased the need for more Elevator Escalator Maintainers, noting that competition with the private sector has been putting pressure on the MTA to do more hiring, and that there is still a gap in hiring that needs to be filled. TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano notes that retaining elevator staffing and hiring new workers has been a long term problem, but that Local 100 is making progress in solving the issue. Read the article here.
Transit workers saw a nice bump in their net earnings in their most recent paycheck (and it wasn’t from the Trump tax cut). It was from an across the board 2.5 percent wage increase, thanks to the collective bargaining agreement between TWU Local 100 and the MTA-New York City Transit, MTA-MABSTOA and MTA Bus.
The increases became effective Feb. 16, 2018. It is the second wage hike in the 28-month agreement with the MTA, negotiated and ratified in early 2017.
In addition to the wage boost, anyone working shifts covered by night and weekend differential will see a 5% increase in that rate as well. It’s the first time in more than a decade that the union secured a boost in the differential rate. To see the wage tables with your new rates, click here.
