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TWU Scores Big Wins on Election Day

TWU Local 100 and New York statewide labor movement scored big wins on Election Day, with the biggest being the successful campaign to defeat Ballot Proposal #1, the New York State Constitutional Convention, or ConCon. TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano had made defeating the ConCon proposition the union’s number one election day target. 

After the announcement that New York voters had rejected the proposition in landslide fashion, Utano credited a strong grass roots effort by TWU and many other unions for the strong performance.  “As little as a month ago, polls showed that ConCon had a good chance to pass.  Our members and activists, and the entire labor movement deserve a lot of credit for turning it around into a huge victory for the security of our pensions, contracts, Workers Compensation and much more.” The stunning turnaround was reflected in the final vote – 78 percent voting no, and only 22 percent voting yes.

Other big wins for Local 100 include:

Westchester County Executive’s Race – TWU’s endorsed candidate , Democrat George Latimer, handily defeated two-term incumbent Rob Astorino.  Local 100 put forth a big effort to dump Astorino, who has opposed a key piece of County legislation that would grant earned paid sick days for County workers, including School Bus employees and workers at Liberty Lines Transportation. 

Yonkers City Council President – TWU Local 100 pushed hard to defeat incumbent Yonkers City Council President Liam McLaughlin.  Our candidate,Democrat Mike Khader, won a tight contest, and credited his victory in big part to the help of TWU and our activists.  We now have the County Executive and Yonkers City Council leadership in union friendly hands.

City Council District 43 – In one of the tightest races in the City, our endorsed candidate for the 43 City Council District, Justin Brannan, defeated his Republican opponent, John Quaglione, by less than 900 votes.  The two were running to replace outgoing Councilmember Vincent Gentile (D), who is term-limited, for a seat that encompasses the southern Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach, and parts of Bensonhurst, neighborhoods with a heavy Local 100 presence. Brannan will be a solid vote for union-friendly and transit friendly measures on the City Council.

Westchester County 16th District TWU’s endorsed candidate Christopher Johnson won his race in the 16^th District of the Westchester Board of County Legislators.  Johnson is a strong community activist and supports us on the earned paid sick days campaign, as well as other issues concerning our School Bus properties and Liberty Lines.

TWU Local 100 Celebrates Indian-American Day

NOVEMBER 4: TWU Local 100 celebrated the Indian-American heritage of over a thousand of our members who work for New York City Transit. Enjoy the show!

l-r Gus Moghrabi, Chair of TWU's School Bus Division, Pres. Utano, and Director of Organizing Frank McCann

TWU Announces Settlement With First Mile Square, Averting a Strike

TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano announced Friday afternoon that First Mile Square bus workers will not go on strike Monday because a tentative deal has been reached with management. The approximately 600 bus operators, matrons and mechanics will get raises and one paid sick day, bringing them parity with employees of other school bus companies in Westchester.

“There won’t be a strike,” Utano said. “In the end, it’s all about the kids. We want to get them to school. That’s our job. But we needed an agreement that was fair to our members.”

The tentative contract agreement includes three annual raises for all workers of 3%, 3% and 3.5% The previous contract expired June 30th. The new 3-year deal will be retroactive to July 1. There remain some details to be hashed out but Utano said the buses would roll Monday morning. The school bus workers currently do not get any paid sick leave. Bus operators currently earn $24 an hour while matrons earn approximately $13 an hour.

First Mile Square transports students in Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and Mamaroneck. Transport Workers Union Local 100 represents more than 42,000 bus, subway and CitiBike workers in New York City and Westchester.

Climate Change is a Joke -- For Too Many

BY PETE DONOHUE 

Climate Change is a joke.

   Not really, but it’s treated as such by too many of us. We don’t loudly demand that our elected officials and institutions take aggressive crisis-level steps to address it. We don’t make drastic, wholesale changes to our lifestyles. If anything, we might quip that Climate Change isn’t such a bad thing - if it means we get to wear wear t-shirts and do yard work when we normally would be dressed for sub-freezing weather and chopping ice off the driveway. It’s one of those things you blurt out in passing to a neighbor you feel compelled to acknowledge with a brief exchange of words but don’t really want to get stuck in a conversation with.

   That has to change, or those bleak predictions by scientists will come to fruition in one form or another. According to one recent study, this is what NYC residents might experience in the not-that-distant future if we don’t somehow avoid this environmental train wreck: by mid-century, the number of heat waves per year could more than triple, the number of days over 90 degrees annually could double, and the sea level could rise by nearly two feet. By 2100, the city’s flood zone could cover 99-square miles. SuperStorm Sandy would be just another weekend.

    There’s no single magical cure but scores of steps – as large as sweeping transitions to renewal energy to composting at home – might get us out of this mess. Improving and expanding mass transit has to be given crisis-level priority to slash the number of people traveling in cars, including taxis. In that light, here are some of the initiatives that Transport Workers Union Local 100 either supports or is working directly to make a reality: