Exec. Board Elevates Richard Davis to Secretary Treasurer and Donald Yates to MaBSTOA VP

MAY 31 -- The Local 100 Executive Board took decisive action today to fill the leadership vacancy left by the retirement late last week of Secretary-Treasurer Earl Phillips.

 
At its regularly scheduled May meeting, the Board voted 43-2-1 to elevate MaBSTOA Vice President Richard Davis to Secretary-Treasurer.  The Board then voted 43-2 to raise MaBSTOA Division 1 Chair Donald Yates to Division Vice President.
 
Local 100 President Tony Utano, who praised both men as eminently ready for the step up in leadership positions, submitted both motions to the Board.

Brother Davis, 52, was born in Guyana and came to America at a young age. He attended Grady Vocational High School in Brooklyn and then John Jay College. He joined NYCT as a Bus Operator at the age of 26, first at the Mother Clara Hale Depot and later at M.J. Quill Depot.
 
He became MABSTOA Division 1 Chair in 2004, then Vice President of the Department in 2014. In those positions he was instrumental in increasing the number of reps in every depot and creating the Leadership and Support Program with a vast Shop Steward program, bringing younger workers into the Department. As MABSTOA VP, he put special focus on empowering women in the Department.

Donald Yates, 53, was hired as a Bus Operator out of Manhattanville in 1994. He became active in the union in 2001, training as a Shop Steward and got involved in the Union’s Political Action campaign fighting for pension reform.

He was elected Chief Line Steward out of Manhattanville in 2003, and was a Picket Captain in the 2005 strike. He was elected Division Vice Chair in 2009 and then Division Chair in 2014.

Photo: President Utano swears in Richard Davis as TWU Local 100 Secretary-Treasurer and Donald Yates as MABSTOA Vice President at the Union Hall.