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Our Powerful Rally in Pictures

OCTOBER 30 -- Ten Thousand transit workers filled lower Manhattan opposite MTA Headquarters at 2 Broadway, with crowds extending down Broadway to Water Street and wrapping around the plaza to Battery Park. Union leadership, along with our allies in organized labor and supportive political leaders, demanded a fair contract for the men and women who move New York. Click on the handles at right to see all the images of this powerful rally.

Transit Workers Rock the MTA’s World With a Powerful Message That TWU Will Not Be Denied

OCTOBER 30 -- Upwards of 10,000 transit workers – wearing TWU blue on their backs and in their hearts – flooded the streets outside the MTA’s Broadway headquarters and sent a heart-pounding message across New York City and State: Local 100 members are ready for anything to win a fair contract and to turn back management’s challenge to the power of a united workforce.

The sea of transit workers extended from the MTA’s doorstep at 2 Broadway southward to Water Street and westward across Bowling Green plaza to Battery Park. Answering the union’s call for a demonstration of unity and strength, Local 100 members starting arriving at the rally site early, even as the staging area and police barricades were still being set up. By 5:00pm, the time the union’s fliers, emails and web posts urged members to begin gathering, the streets were already filled to overflow.

The police detail assigned to the rally decided early that keeping a lane open down Whitehall St. for emergency vehicles was hopeless against the crush of blue-colored humanity. It proved a wise decision, as two marches by anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 more transit workers descended on the rally from the south and the north.  MABSTOA members, carrying banners displaying pride in their union and their depots, powered up Broadway along Battery Park from South Ferry and across Bowling Green Plaza into the fray. TAS members streamed southward from City Hall to join the rally just as it was beginning. These powerful displays added another jolt of energy to an already supercharged crowd.

In Queens, Politicians Call on MTA to Address Filth and Trash on Trains

State Sen. Leroy Comrie, (D-Queens) chairman of the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, called on the MTA Tuesday  to increase the number of subway car cleaners to address filth and trash on trains. Comrie joined Transport Workers Union Local 100 Administrative Vice  President Nelson Rivera, Vice President Eric Loegel and transit workers at the 179th St. F-train station in Jamaica, Queens, to criticize the MTA for scaling back on subway car cleaning. Former Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, chair of The Friends of The QNS, a non-profit advocating for a revival of the Lower Montauk Branch of the LIRR to a transit line, also came to lend support.

The MTA has cut nearly 80 Car Cleaner positions over the last few years and many stations at the end of the line – like 179th St. – do not have any Car Cleaners on the overnight shift at all. “I’m here to support TWU Local 100 and their effort to make sure every train is clean for the riders who come here to take one of the longest rides in the city,” Comrie said. “We have a ridership that is second to none in terms of volume in this area and it’s a ridiculous effort by the MTA to reduce cleanliness in the system and to remove cleaners from the system. The MTA needs to look at management and get rid of all those people making $250,000 and up instead of getting rid of cleaners. We need more cleaners.”

Rivera and other Local 100 officers handed riders flyers promoting the union’s Trash Train contest. In the contest, riders can submit photographs of the dirtiest, filthiest subway cars they encounter - and have a chance to win $500. Voters decide which subway car scene depicted is the worst of the bunch. The contest is raising awareness of the Car Cleaner job cuts. Nearly 200 photos have been submitted, and the contest has been covered by every major television station and newspaper in the city. “The MTA has to clean up its act and make subway car cleaning a much greater priority,” Rivera said. “Riders should not have to ride in disgusting conditions. Train crews should not have to contend with cars fouled with urine, feces and other sickening situations that exist because of these job cuts.”

Union Celebrates Italian Heritage in High Style

Led by our first Italian-American elected President of TWU Local 100, officers and rank and file members enjoyed a festive evening celebrating their heritage, the achievements of Italian-American transit workers, and Sal Montanino, a Car Inspector of Italian heritage who retired this year after serving 61 years as a New York City Transit employee and proudly carrying the Union banner through three citywide strikes. The evening was helmed by John V. Chiarello, VP of Maintenance of Way. View the photos by clicking on the handles to the right and left.