Italian Night is First Celebration at New Union Hall

Italian American Heritage Night, TWU Local 100’s celebration of the contributions to our union by Italian American transit workers, became the first official event to be held at our new Union Hall at 195 Montague Street.Local 100 MOW Vice President Tony Utano organized and hosted the event in the new hall’s spacious meeting room. 

Newly elected TWU International President Harry Lombardo, the first Italian-American to serve in that office, was the event’s special guest and keynote speaker.  After the Pledge of Allegiance, a Moment of Silence and Invocation, Local 100 President John Samuelsen greeted attendees, but as he said, “I can’t let a gathering of so many transit workers take place without a little business.”

That “business” took the form of a report on the union’s current efforts to negotiate a fair contract with the MTA for NYCT, MABSTOA and MTA Bus members.  He affirmed that the MTA’s demands that transit workers accept no pay increase for three years “is an insult,” and he stated bluntly, “transit workers are not eating three zeroes.” International President Lombardo offered the national union’s full support for Local 100’s bargaining goals, and he said that under his stewardship, TWU across the country would return to its roots as a “street-fighting union.”