Labor Day Update
TO ALL TWU LOCAL 100 MEMBERS: LABOR DAY UPDATE
from Local 100 President John Samuelsen
Contract, New Union Hall, Local Finances
Labor Day has always marked the unofficial end of summer. TWU Local 100 helped New York City’s 2.5 million working families mark the event with our annual Labor Day parade up 5th Avenue on Saturday, September 8.
I hope each of you had a great summer with your families and loved ones.
By mutual agreement, TWU Local 100 and the MTA adjourned negotiations for the month of August. Now, with the summer behind us, we anticipate a full schedule of negotiating sessions, including two this week (September 11 and September 13).
Given the MTA’s insistence that we accept three zeroes and make other major concessions, we are still far from an agreement. However, a few developments this summer have, I believe, created a much better atmosphere for negotiations.
In July, the MTA announced that this year’s revenues have exceeded expectations by $90 million. Chairman Joseph Lhota said that the MTA would use the funds to restore a significant portion of the service cut in 2010, and to delay next year’s scheduled fare increase for several months.
It’s no coincidence that earlier this year, Local 100 undertook several campaigns to reach out and build alliances with community based and religious groups, as well as with our brother and sister members in other private and public sector unions. In that connection, our union joined with community groups in neighborhoods either historically under-served, or where the MTA had cut service. Our efforts were designed to shine a spotlight on those neighborhoods and to marshal community support and activism with our campaign to push the MTA to restore service. This movement resonated strongly in the communities, and resulted in special service restoration victories for our union in neighborhoods like the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, which despite great growth in its resident and business population, was seriously underserved.
With that win behind us, our union formed an alliance with the religious community, to enlist 80 members of the clergy, to sign onto Local 100’s campaign linking the transit needs of the New York City’s communities to the importance of preserving secure, good paying, full-time transit jobs that not only provide critically important transit services, help build and maintain good, safe and stable communities. In their letter of support, they take a clear stand against OPTO and part-time Bus Operators.
This relationship with the community is crucial to our contract fight and crucial to Local 100 in the long term. We can’t do it alone. We need support from the community and support from the labor movement. These relationships help us build a stronger Local 100 and are helping us beat back the MTA’s drive for diminished full time jobs.
The Move To Our New Union Hall:
As you are aware, Local 100 has been without our own home since 2006, when the building we owned at 80 West End Ave was sold. Although we were once collecting rent from others at 80 West End Ave, we wound up paying $140,000 per month to stay there after we sold it. Under the lease terms agreed to in 2006, Local 100 had to leave 80 West End by December 31, 2010. As a temporary measure, our union offices moved to 1700 Broadway. Although we saved about $40,000 per month by moving there, 1700 Broadway is not designed to be a Union Hall. We need a union hall that members can freely come to, a union hall that staff can work from effectively. 1700 Broadway simply does not fit that need.
This year we purchased a new union hall, and I am happy to report that renovation is underway. We are going to have a state-of-the-art hall that serves the membership’s actual needs. If work stays on schedule, it will be ready by mid-December. Not only will we have offices that meet our needs, we will also earn income with our new Union Hall, rather than paying a landlord over one million dollars per year.
Hopefully, by the time we meet on December 15 for our annual mass membership meeting, I’ll be able to report a date for an open house at the new hall.
Union’s Finances:
In 2010, I requested an audit of Local 100’s finances and a review of its financial policies and practices. The audit revealed that many of those longstanding policies were inadequate. As a result of the audit, we agreed to work under the direction of the TWU International to rectify these decades-old shortcomings. In June of this year, TWU International President James C. Little announced that Local 100 successfully corrected every issue. He commended us for not only instituting important new financial controls, but also for strictly adhering to those principles. After Local 100 adopted these financial policies, the TWU International issued a letter to all TWU Locals advising them to adopt the very policies that Local 100 instituted in 2011.
As mentioned above, our mass membership meeting is scheduled for Dec. 15. Check our website for news and updates on this important event, as well as updates on contract negotiations and other important business of the union.