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Union Statement on Mass Transit Funding in NY State Budget

Feb. 1, 2023 -- TWU Local 100 will fight the MTA if it tries to balance its budget on the backs of transit workers, TWU Local 100 President Richard Davis said today.

MTA budget plans include some $400 million in savings through “efficiencies.”

“We don’t know yet what the MTA means by ‘efficiencies,’ but we will fight any effort to balance the budget on the backs of transit workers,” Davis said in a statement. “We kept the bus and subway system running through the pandemic, and that must be fully recognized.”

MTA finances were a central focus of the New York State financial plan that Gov. Hochul unveiled in Albany earlier today. Hochul proposed a slight increase in a business tax to generate $800 million in additional revenues for mass transit. She is also looking to the city to provide another $500 million.

“This is a great first step,” Davis said. “It’s a clear recognition by Gov. Hochul that the bus and subway system is essential, and government has the responsibility to provide the necessary funding. We also agree with her 100% that service cuts must be avoided.”

President Davis Presides Over Jam-Packed Mass Membership Meeting; Talks About the Contract, Unity, and the Focus On Members

Screw the budget gaps!

Speaking at the jam-packed Mass Membership Meeting in Manhattan on Saturday, Local 100 President Richard Davis vowed the MTA won’t get off easy in upcoming contract negotiations by crying poverty - again.

“The MTA says they have massive budget gaps,” Davis said. “I say, screw their budget gaps! We worked through the pandemic! And that needs to be recognized!”

The negotiations could be among the most difficult ever. “We have to be united,” Davis said. “No divisions! One union, with one voice, and one fist!”

More than 1,500 members attended the gathering at the Sheraton Hotel near Times Square. In a strong sign of respect and support, Mayor Eric Adams made time in his busy schedule to attend and speak to the members. He is the first mayor to attend a Mass Membership Meeting. TWU International President John Samuelsen also was a guest speaker. He promised the International would back the Local one-hundred percent during negotiations, providing resources, expertise, and other assistance.

The over-arching theme was “Member Built, Member Strong, Member Driven.”

Member Built: TWU was organized by subway workers in the depths of the Great Depression when workers toiled 7 days a week for poverty wages – without overtime, healthcare, vacations, or pensions.

Member Strong: Local 100 has more than 42,000 members. We operate and maintain the largest transit system in North America. We also have members in the school bus, private bus, and tourism industries.

Member Driven: The top priority is the membership. The focus is on the membership.

“TWU is a great union, not just because of what we do, or our size, but because of who we are as individuals,” Davis said after introducing a video featuring “some of our outstanding members.” Click this link to watch the video.

Members featured in the video received certificates of appreciation, including Tonya Thompson, a Bronx Bus Operator and a cancer survivor. Thompson is a leading volunteer organizer and fundraiser for breast cancer awareness and research. “It felt amazing to be recognized by my Union for all the hard work I’ve put in over the years,” she said. “Simply a wonderful day."

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Executive Board Statement Against Violence and Intimidation

The TWU Local 100 Executive Board has approved a statement against intimidation, harassment, or violence against any union member or officer. You can read it here.

Contract Bargaining Training Held as Union Gets Ready for the Big Fight

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Dozens of officers participated in three days of contract negotiation training to prepare for the looming battle with the MTA.

The program featured expert instruction on topics such as the legal parameters of public sector bargaining, preparing for negotiations, membership engagement, developing proposals and using leverage to achieve goals. Officers also broke into labor and management teams to conduct mock negotiating sessions. Veterans sat shoulder-to-shoulder with younger up-and-coming officers, passing along knowledge gained from decades of experience and sharing ideas.

In addition, directors of Local 100 departments - Organizing, Member Services, Grievance and Discipline, Political Action, Safety, and Communications - gave presentations on department activities, data, goals, and strategies that could be deployed during different stages of the contract campaign.

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“We’re about to enter one of the most difficult contract negotiations of all time,” Local 100 President Richard Davis said. “The MTA says it has unprecedented budget deficits and is warning of doomsday scenarios with service cuts and steep fare hikes. City Hall has ordered up three rounds of budget cuts already. Some big private companies are laying off thousands of workers. We’re going to have to fight like hell and must be prepared. That’s what these last three days have been all about, getting prepared.”

A new Rapid Response Organizing Committee will start going to work locations next week to begin one-on-one discussions with members to hear about their issues and concerns.

The training was conducted over three days ending Friday, Jan. 13. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, one of the most powerful politicians in the state, came to meet with President Davis and share a few words with the officers participating in the training. It turned into a mini-pep rally with the Speaker leading a chant of “Union!”

“You are here to be trained,” she said. “You’re here to understand how this is supposed to work. And the reality is, it is going to work, because you have in your hearts and minds the best interest of the people you represent, period. If you come with that attitude, it will work, understanding that you set the tone. You set the bar for how labor rolls.”

Also coming by to support the Union were NY State Senator Shelley Mayer (D-Yonkers) and Westchester County Executive George Latimer.

The Local 100 contract with the MTA expires May 16.

Pres. Davis Joins Nurses on Strike to Pledge Our Support

TWU Local 100 President Richard Davis joined thousands of striking nurses on a picket line and pledged Local 100’s support in their struggle for a fair contract.

Speaking outside Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, Davis said transit workers know first-hand how vital nurses are to city residents in medical crisis. Transit workers brought nurses and other hospital staffers to their posts by bus and subway during the dark days of the pandemic. Like transit workers, nurses were too essential to stay at home.

“On behalf of Local 100, we stand in solidarity with you, and we will make sure we fight for you,” Davis said. “Yes, we can! Sí se puede!”

Thousands of nurses, members of the New York Nurses Association, walked off the job at 6 a.m. Monday at Mount Sinai and three campuses of the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. The nurses’ demands include “safe staffing.” Hospitals have not hired enough nurses to properly handle the volume of patients. As a result, nurses are overworked and stressed-out. Patients are receiving sub-standard care, nurses say.

Nurses on the picket said they appreciated Local 100’s support, just as they appreciated the service transit workers provided during the pandemic.

“Without transit, without the crosstown bus, I wouldn’t have been able to get to work,” a surgical ICU nurse with 25 years on the job said.

Fighting MTA Service Cuts: Sign the Petition

Local 100 President Richard Davis attacks the MTA for planning to cut subway service in an Op-Ed published today by the New York Daily News. In the piece, Davis says service cuts will force riders to wait longer for trains, experience more crowding, and lead to more anger and frustration being directed at transit workers.

He also says it’s “ridiculous” for transit management to claim that the service reductions “reflect what our customers are asking for.” In the history of mass transit, no one ever asked for less service and more crowded conditions.

You can read the Op-Ed here.

Click here to Sign the Petition

Save the Dates! Upcoming Union Events

Saturday, Jan. 28th: Mass Membership Meeting at the Sheraton Times Square (53rd & 7th Ave.) Open to all members in good standing.

Wednesday, Feb. 22: Black History Celebration at the Union Hall

Wednesday, March 15: Quill-Connolly Day (Irish Heritage) at the Union Hall

Tuesday, March 28: LOBBY DAY in Albany (Political Action to Advance our Legislative Agenda)

Wednesday, March 22: Women's Heritage Day at the Union Hall

Update on Collecting Agent involved in Shooting

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As many of you know from media accounts, one of our Collecting Agents was involved in a shooting at the Union St. subway station in Brooklyn Tuesday night. Stations Vice President Robert Kelley and his team quickly responded to the station and provided the Agent with support and assistance and were instrumental in getting him home to his family.

“We will continue to support our union brother through this process, but we are unable to comment further at this time,” Kelley said.

Union Slams MTA On Service Cuts, Assaults

TWU Local 100 Local 100 President Richard Davis, RTO Vice President Canella Gomez, and TWU International President John Samuelsen spoke out against planned subway service cuts at MTA Headquarters Wednesday. “Service cuts are a terrible, terrible idea,” Davis told MTA Chairman Janno Lieber and Board members at their monthly meeting.

“TWU Local 100 will fight you every step of the way.” The MTA is planning to reduce subway service on seven lines on Mondays and Fridays when ridership is lighter in part because suburbanites are choosing to work from home. But running fewer trains those days will make it harder for riders who don’t have the luxury of staying at home, including the many working-class, front-line, essential workers who also had to toil through the pandemic, Davis said.

Service cuts also will lead to more worker assaults, the union leaders warned. “We’re going to have more angry passengers waiting on the platform,” Gomez said. Planned cuts on the 1,6,7, E, F, Q, and L lines would happen in June if enacted. Gomez's remarks are here.

Investment Banker Jean-Francois Coste

Drunken Banker Punches Train Operator

An entitled rich investment banker punched one of our female Train Operators in the face for stopping him from going into a non-public area of a Brooklyn station. He was arrested but outrageously was later released without having to post bail.

Local 100 President Richard Davis issued a blistering public statement following the Friday, Dec. 16, 2022, attack at the Stillwell Ave. terminal station - and vowed that TWU would see the attacker in court.

“The public should be treating transit workers as heroes, not punching bags,” Davis said. “Time and time again we’ve stepped up for this city, most recently working through the pandemic, and this is the thanks we get. It has to stop. We will see this guy in court.”

Davis continued: “We’re going to send a strong message to the judges and prosecutors that they must take assaults against transit workers far more seriously. No more slaps on the wrist.”

Jean Francois Coste, 53, was charged with second-degree assault, a felony, and some misdemeanors. A judge did not impose bail and he was released ROR. “This is just another slap in the face to all transit workers,” RTO VP Canella Gomez said. “It’s amazing how quick you can go from heroes to zeros in this city.”

TO Tanya McCray was leaving the crew room at approximately 12:15 a.m. and closed the door so it would lock as an apparently intoxicated Coste approached on the mezzanine. He then punched her without warning, striking her in the face at least twice. She got in a few licks in herself, punching Coste in self-defense and swinging her lunch bag, which contained a thermos, at him. Another Train Operator came to her assistance and pushed Coste away.

“Thank God for him,” McCray said. “He really came to the rescue and helped me.”

Coste fled to the platform and boarded a train, but Local 100 members cornered him and made sure he didn’t go anywhere until the police arrived.