Utano Blasts Latest Media Attacks on Transit Workers

TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano issued the following statement concerning the latest attacks on transit workers by the MTA and the media.

“The media’s open season on transit workers continued today with new attacks in the NY Post and on Fox 5 TV. The latest public abuse came in the form of a regurgitation of a 2018 investigation by the MTA Inspector General. Fox doubled down on the Post report by grandstanding outside Quill depot lamenting ‘an infuriating picture of overtime abuse inside the MTA,’ that, by the way, has nothing to do with rank-and-file transit workers.

"Most of the outrage against transit workers is being fueled by the MTA’s new media-hungry Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny, who continues to foment the ridiculous scenario that all 70,000 MTA workers are getting paid for not working. So be it. We’re used to the MTA assaulting its own workforce.

“This is all a repetitive pattern of smearing transit workers during periods, like now, when TWU is negotiating a new contract.

“I want to assure this membership that nothing will stop us from achieving a fair contract that protects our health benefits, our safety on the job and our financial security. We will continue to stand strong against whatever they throw at us.”