APRIL 3 -- TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano gave MTA management a comprehensive list of contract demands as he kicked off negotiations Wednesday at the Union Hall.Flanked by the top 10 elected officers, and backed by dozens of Local 100 Executive Board members, Utano outlined the case for a fair, inflation-beating agreement:
· We are a trained and dedicated force of professionals who deliver a critical service moving millions of people a day by bus and subway.
· We work around the clock in a stressful and hazardous environment. Since the last round of contract talks, three transit workers were killed on the job and hundreds more were injured in assaults or accidents.
· We’ve begun to turn back the tide of delays with the Subway Action Plan. The MTA’s own metrics show service is improving because of the increased inspections, repairs and other work being done by Local 100 members.
· The MTA’s finances have significantly improved. The state Legislature approved new funding streams for the authority: Congestion Pricing, a new real-estate tax on the sale of mansions, and a new Internet sales tax. The MTA board also enacted fare and toll hikes.
“Our members expect a fair and equitable agreement,” Utano said. “We have worked hard for it. We deserve it. “There is no need to be nickel and diming us. And there is certainly no reason for your side of the table to be demanding givebacks of any kind.” Utano defined a fair and equitable contract as one that keeps workers ahead of inflation, enhances on-the-job safety, protects health benefits and addresses numerous departmental concerns. It also means a pact that drives down the “ridiculous and unnecessary amount of discipline for trivial violations across every title,” Utano said.
Utano presented the demands to an MTA delegation led by Chief Employee Relations and Administrative Officer Anita Miller. The package was developed during a three-month process during which members presented proposals to their sectional and divisional officer. The Local 100 Contract Policy Committee put together a final package that was reviewed and approved by the Executive Board. “I would like to add that our Executive Board unanimously adopted this package,” Utano told MTA brass. “This is a powerful indication that the entire leadership and membership are solidly behind this effort.” Both sides agreed to confer on dates for main table and divisional negotiations. The current contract expires on May 15.
MARCH 29 -- A New York City Transit Conductor was spat upon and menaced for telling a rider not to smoke on a train early this morning. The incident followed several others this month: one conductor was punched in the face, another was spat upon and yet another was struck in the head with a bottle.
“This is a disgusting, despicable, really outrageous thing that’s happening to our conductors,” Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Tony Utano told 1010 WINS. “They are getting spit on. They are getting bottles thrown at them. No other group of workers in New York City has to deal with this stuff.” He called for a greater police presence in stations and also for additional cameras.
In today's incident, after receiving a report of an unruly customer smoking on the train, the No. 6 Train Conductor made an announcement at approximately 5:15 a.m. requesting the rider extinguish the cigarette or get off. The man became belligerent and began banging on her cab door, cursing and yelling.
When the train doors opened at Bleecker Street. the man came to the Conductor’s window and spat on the her face. After she closed the window, he continued spitting on the window and wrote "BITCH" on the window with his saliva.
The conductor requested medical attention and evaluation, and the train was taken out of service, Eric Loegel, Local 100 Vice President of Rapid Transit Operations, said. Police described the attacker as as African American, approximately 5 foot 9 inches tall, dressed in a lime green and hunter green sweater and khaki pants with a salt-and-pepper Mohawk hairstyle.
All work at the sprawling College Point MTA bus depot came to halt at 10:30 a.m. this morning (Thursday, March 28th) in a solemn tribute to veteran Maintainer Helper Stephen Livecchi, who was killed on the job as he was directing bus traffic one year ago on March 27, 2018. Brother Livecchi had worked at the Depot for 37 years.
Many of the depot’s workers, from both transportation and maintenance, gathered for the unveiling of an engraved memorial to the fallen transit worker, near the entrance to the facility on 28th Avenue.
Livecchi’s wife, Donna, surrounded by union officers, MTA officials and scores of Local 100 members, sobbed quietly as a lone piper from the NYC Transit Pipe and Drum band, Tom Gervin from Gun Hill Depot, played a soulful ballad.
Local 100 President Tony Utano, Administrative Vice President Nelson Rivera, Vice President Peter Rosconi, and MTA Bus Division and Depot officers attended, along with Darryl Irick, President of the MTA Bus Company and George Menduina, Vice President of MTA Facilities. President Utano offered comforting words as he addressed the family. “TWU will always be here for you. You are part of the TWU family,” said Utano. “And it’s a big family.” Utano also said that the memorial would ensure that “Stephen Livecchi will never be forgotten.” He said that new workers coming on the job would pass by the memorial every day as they arrive at work, and ask “what happened here; what is this all about?” Utano said that they would be told the story and “be reminded just how dangerous our jobs are.”
The MTA’s Menduina said that he was at College Point the day of the tragedy in March 2018. “out of this tragedy came some good,” said Menduina. “The MTA, working with the union, has developed new safety protocols for bus movement not only at College Point depot but at every MTA bus facility throughout the city.” NYC Transit Police Officer J.W. Cortez closed the ceremony with a beautiful rendition of “God Bless America.”
Jeff Vogel, a long-time member of the New York City Labor Chorus, recently published a poem/song entitled, Soul of the City, featuring lyrics celebrating the role of our subways in the life of New York City. Here’s the song set to a charming video of scenes across the system. Lyrics by Jeff Voegel; music by Joe Gutierrez; Ruben Gutierrez on saxophone. Video production by Abigail Gutierrez. Enjoy the show!
TWU Local 100 marks the one year anniversary of Track Worker St. Clair Richards-Stephens, who lost his life on the tracks at 125th Street on the Lexington Avenue line one year ago. He was only 23 at the time of his death. HIs death sparked a renewed effort to make the job safer for all of the transit employees working for the MTA who put their lives on the line in dangerous conditions. Mourn the dead -- fight like hell for the living -- Mother Jones.
The Local 100 Executive Board today (Friday, March 15, 2019) unanimously adopted a comprehensive set of economic and departmental contractual demands for presentation to the MTA in early April. The Board ratified the work of the Local 100 Contract Policy Committee, which crafted the package from the proposals gathered at all Division meetings during the month of February.
“I’m very happy that our Executive Board stands unified behind this package,” said Local 100 President Tony Utano. “Both the Contract Policy Committee and our Executive Board have done an outstanding job of crafting this package. Their hard work is a huge step forward in ultimately attaining a fair contract for our members at the MTA.”
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13 -- Transport Workers Union Local 100 is urging the State Legislature to enact Congestion Pricing, which would give transit workers the equipment and infrastructure they need to provide world-class service.
TWU Local 100 is running a full-page advertisement in The New York Daily News today (at left). TWU also will be leafleting riders in the transit system, Local 100 President Tony Utano said Tuesday.
“The New York economy will falter if the NYC bus-and-subway system subway crisis is not solved,” Utano said. “We’ve made progress with the Subway Action Plan – but we can’t stop now. Our elected officials must pass congestion pricing.”
The ad states that Congestion Pricing would generate billions of dollars for improvements such as hundreds of new subway trains, thousands of new buses and a modernized signal system.
TWU Local 100 represents more than 40,000 bus and subway workers employed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, including train operators, bus operators, mechanics, station agents and trackworkers.
Hundreds of school bus workers in Westchester County will be receiving significant raises and – for the first time - paid sick days, thanks to a contract Transport Workers Union Local 100 reached with the White Plains Bus Co. "This contract will undoubtedly improve the lives of our brothers and sisters at White Plains Bus,” TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano said. “They will be better able to take care of their families and themselves. If they need to take a sick day, now they can without being penalized by a loss of pay.”
Local 100 represents about 400 employees at White Plains Bus, including Bus and Van Operators, Bus Monitors and Mechanics. The company, a subsidiary of National Express, provides school bus service for the White Plains school district, paratransit service for Westchester County, and charter bus service for special events and summer camps in the region. Over the course of the five-year agreement, Local 100 Bus Operators, Van Operators and Mechanics will see their pay increase by 16.5%, and Bus Monitors will get a 15% rise. The contract runs from July 2018, through June 2023. Members ratified the contract in overwhelming fashion: 217 to 2 on Friday, March 8.
Other benefits from the agreement include:
- The length of time workers must have on the job to get the top pay rate will be slashed from four years to just one year. This will add another raise to the top rate for all employees who've been there between 1 and 4 years.
- The guaranteed work week for Bus Operators will rise over the length of the contract from 22.5 hours to 27.5 hours. Van Operators and Monitors’ hours will increase from 22.5 to 25 hours.
- Up to five (5) earned sick days per year. For every 30 hours worked, an employee earns one hour of sick time.
- Workers can cash out unused sick time. The company will pay workers for 40% of their unused time. There also are safety and attendance bonuses. Workers with 15 or more years of service get an extra personal day.
This contract is believed to be the first to incorporate the provisions of the Earned Sick Leave Law that TWU Local 100 helped to enact with the support of Westchester County Executive George Latimer and Legislator Catherine Borgia last October. The law goes into effect April 19. Because of the success in getting the law passed, Local 100 negotiators were able to win paid sick time in these negotiations.
The contract was negotiated in Tarrytown, New York. In addition to President Utano, the Local 100 team included: School Bus Divison Chair Gus Moghrabi; Organizing Director Frank McCann and TWU Section Chair Luis Fernandez.
Local 100 President Tony spoke out today against the assault on a Conductor at the 125th Street IRT station on the 4 line this morning. He talked to 1010 WINS about the right of our members to defend themselves against assault.
The MaBSTOA Emerald Society honored Local 100 President Tony Utano at its 57th Anniversary Dinner-Dance on Friday evening, March 1, 2019. Emerald Society President John Mullane presented Utano with the organization’s ‘Man of the Year’ award. Also honored was Quill Depot Chair Sukhy Singh for his steadfast support for the organization over the years. On the management side, Don Martin, Assistant General Manager of the Baisley Park Depot, was named ‘Irishman of the Year.” Utano told a packed house at the Villa Barone in the Bronx that MaBSTOA – which was established by the New York Legislature 57 years ago after a bruising 29-day strike against the Fifth Avenue Coach, Omnibus and Surface Transit Bus companies – has always served as a bulwark of support for a unified TWU. He said that a unified TWU would be needed once again as the union prepares for contract negotiations with the MTA. “I know I can count on you,” said Utano, “and I know that you in MaBSTOA will provide the backbone of support for this effort, as you always have in the past.”
photos: From left, President Utano, Emerald Society President John Mullane, Local 100 Organizing Director and previous honoree, Frank McCann. Group photo of some of the well-wishers at the MaBSTOA Emerald dinner. President Utano with attendees from the School Bus Division. Quill Depot chair Sukhy Singh with President Utano and other depot officers.
