Black and Latino Caucus Stands with Local 100 in Contract Fight

Local 100 picked up crucial support on January 24, 2012 for its campaign for a fair contract for transit workers from numerous members of the State Legislature’s Black and Latino Caucus.

Nearly 20 influential legislators from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, including Keith Wright, Chair of the Assembly Labor Committee, and Martin Malavé Dilan, Chair of the Minority Conference and Senior Assistant Majority Leader, demanded that the MTA drop its demands for three years of zero wage increases, part time bus operators and a new, permanent lower wage tier for newly hired Cleaners.

The legislators, who spoke at a press conference at the Legislative Office Building in Albany,  echoed the importance of public transportation to their constituents, and the positive economic impact of transit workers who live in their communities and who work at MTA depots and barns in their districts.

Local 100 President John Samuelsen, speaking on behalf of the Local 100 officers and staff in attendance, thanked the legislators for “standing with TWU.”  He said that the union is vigorously resisting the MTA’s assault on full time jobs, and he said that the union would pursue its goal of a negotiated settlement that “allows us to continue to take care of our families.”

In responding to the MTA’s goal of part-timers in bus transportation, Samuelsen said, “transit worker don’t have part-time families, we don’t have part-time mortgages, and our children don’t go to school and college part time.”

NYS AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento joined with Samuelsen and TWU leaders in demanding contract justice for transit workers.

Several of the legislators called on Gov. Cuomo to use his clout with the MTA to bargain in good faith “and get this contract done.”

Assembly Labor Chair Wright said he is “very concerned about this contract.  Labor is the backbone of this City.”

Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera of the Bronx, demanded that the MTA “stop trying to push transit workers out of the middle class.  We cannot allow the MTA to chip away at TWU wages.  We need a fair contract.”

Assemblyman Raphael Espinal of Brooklyn called public transit “the transmission of our economy,” and he decried MTA efforts to diminish wages for Cleaners.

Assembly Guillermo Linares of Manhattan, assured TWU leaders that “you are not alone in your contract fight.  We fully support you.”  Linares also indicted the MTA for “standing in the way workers trying to elevate to the middle class.”

In addition, those standing with TWU included, from the State Assembly: Carmen E. Arroyo, Marcos A. Crespo, Vanessa Gibson and José Rivera of the Bronx; Robert Rodriguez of Manhattan, and Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn.   From the Senate side, Malcolm Smith of Queens, Adriano Espaillat, Bill Perkins and José M. Serrano of Manhattan; José Peralta of Queens, Kevin Parker and Eric Adams of Brooklyn and Gustavo Rivera, of the Bronx.