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Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, Co-Sponsor, other politicians, and TWU and Union members on the steps in Albany's state house supporting the bill.

We Win as Gov. Cuomo Signs Veterans’ Bill

Three years of dogged effort by TWU Local 100 and statewide military veterans’ groups paid off in a huge way on May 31 when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Veteran’s Equality Act (S7160/A9531 – Larkin/Paulin) into law. Now, all New York State military veterans – regardless of where they served – will be able to buy back three years of pension credit in public retirement systems.

Legislation passed in 2000 allowed such buy-backs only for service during certain conflicts like WW II, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War. Iraq was covered, yet Afghanistan, Kosovo, and certain other conflicts were not. And the legislation left out women veterans who were barred from combat zones.

President Samuelsen made passing a new veteran’s bill a priority, establishing our Veteran’s Committee under the leadership of then RTO Vice President Kevin Harrington and raising the profile of our annual Veteran’s Day celebration at the Hall.

TWU Local 100 Slams Corporate Greed, and Formally Adopts Verizon Picket Line on Montague Street

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MAY 25 -- Marching down Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights and bringing traffic to a halt, the Executive Board of TWU Local 100 proudly joined the picket line set up by the Communications Workers of America at the Verizon wireless location nearest our union headquarters. After taking over the street at the picket site, our Executive Board joined CWA workers in a march down the street and around the block, snarling traffic including totally stopping New York City Transit buses on Court Street.

The mid-day action was just the latest demonstration of TWU Local 100’s support for Verizon strikers. TWU Local 100 has already opened our Union Hall to the strikers, providing food and a place to rest while they face off against an employer who is bent on breaking their union and outsourcing their jobs overseas. The Verizon strike, now in its sixth week, is a bitter test of union solidarity. With company shares down 5% since the start of the strike, the strategy of withholding labor and shaming the company is starting to show some results. At the Verizon location on Montague, business is down 82% because of strike activity.

At stake is a generation of good union jobs, which would be eliminated if Verizon management succeeds in outsourcing call center jobs out of America  and aggressively fighting union attempts to organize its wireless stores. TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen, rallying the TWU troops at the picket line, declared that “the bastards at Verizon have got to go,” and pledged our steadfast support until the dispute is settled. Verizon's forcing the CWA to strike is especially vindictive because of the huge profits which Verizon is racking up on the backs of its employees.

TWU Sec-Treasurer Earl Phillips Gets a View of New Digital Tech along with MTA Buses Chief Darryl Irick, MTA CEO Tom Prendergast, and Gov. Cuomo at Quill Depot

Digital Buses Get Roll-Out at Quill Depot

MAY 17 -- In the Bus Depot named after the great Mike Quill , Governor Andrew Coumo unveiled the latest addition to our bus fleet in NYC. Surrounded by MTA brass and Local 100 Bus Operators and Maintainers, the Governor noted, “Mr. [Earl] Phillips and the TWU, the Union that represents the workers, has been a great partner to us. We have a great relationship and the progress that we’re making, we couldn’t make without that partnership.”

With daily newspapers giving way to iphones, tablets, and other devices – and transit riders demanding a digital-friendly ride – the Governor was touting high-tech modernization as one of the benefits to New Yorkers from his infusion of cash into the MTA’s capital program. 75 of the new buses, equipped with USB charging ports and wifi, will be on the streets this summer, and their number will grow to 2,042 in five years under the capital plan. As he has done repeatedly since the beginning of the year, the Governor pushed mass transit as the solution to New York’s growing population and called it critical to our growing economy. Better amenities like wifi, he said, will ensure that people not only use mass transit “because there is no alternative, [but because] they actually like it.”

Increased investment in public transit means an increased level of job security and income potential for TWU Local members.

MTA's Intrusive 'Eye in the Sky'

Bus Operators rightly want to slam the brakes on this Metropolitan Transportation Authority plan. The authority wants to put Operators under total surveillance with video cameras focused exclusively on their driving compartments. Authority functionaries would then review videotape to see if they can catch Bus Operators breaking one of the MTA’s countless rules.

The MTA insists this wholesale invasion of privacy is not up for discussion.  “We have the unilateral right to install an additional security camera to capture the bus operator’s compartment as part of our ongoing effort to fulfill our managerial responsibility to provide a safe transportation system for our employees and customers,” a NYC Transit vice president wrote the union in April.  

Take a hike.

Better yet, put a surveillance camera over his desk, and in every other executive office and cubicle at 2 Broadway.

Actually, there’s nothing in the union-management contract allowing the MTA to so dramatically alter the terms and conditions of employment on its own, JP Patafio, Local 100 Vice President of TA Surface said. Since the cameras would be used for disciplinary purposes, they can only be installed with the union’s consent after negotiations, according to Patafio, who has filed a complaint with the state Public Employment Relations Board. While the MTA claims it’s interested in safety and security, the vice president’s letter reveals the underlying petty nature of management’s intent. The vice president cited two potential safety violations to justify sticking a camera in every bus operator’s face: the prohibited use of cell phones – and radios!

It’s been more than seven years, meanwhile, since Bus Operator Edwin Thomas was stabbed to death by an ex-con farebeater in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and the MTA still hasn’t outfitted the entire fleet with protective partitions to shield operators from the unruly and unhinged. The MTA is moving at a snail’s pace with new technology and equipment that can prevent accidents, including external bus speakers that broadcast warnings to pedestrians when a bus is turning. It continues to buy buses with flawed mirror designs and mirror placement, creating the deadly “blind spots” concealing the presence of pedestrians in crosswalks. And the authority still hasn’t finished installing cameras where they are really needed. Cameras focused on the public areas of buses – the seats and aisles and doorways – have been valuable tools for police investigating on-board crimes, including assaults against bus operators. But only a fraction of the fleet – 2,440 out of approximately 6,000 – have those anti-crime cameras.

Transit officials are quick to point out in their press releases that bus operators do a great job. The number of collisions per million miles traveled has dropped 46% over the last three decades. If they want to improve on that record, there are plenty of more meaningful projects the MTA can focus on other than this massive invasion of privacy against its own employees.