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Transit Workers Recall 911 -- In Their Own Words

TWU Local 100 produced this video of the recollections of transit workers who served at Ground Zero during the rescue and recovery effort on 9/11 and the days thereafter. As the towers fell, TWU Train Operators and Bus Operators evacuated citizens from lower Manhattan. Then, once the scope of the disaster became evident, Transit assigned over 2,200 workers to the operation. Hundreds more volunteered. For the first three days, the only heavy rigs at the site were New York City Transit’s. Our Track Workers and Structure Maintainers removed damaged and destroyed debris and vehicles using our heavy equipment, so that rescue crews could access the site. Other MOW personnel went in to repair crucial radio and communications links which were severed when the towers went down. NYCT Telephone Maintainers extended the Transit Authority’s underground phone lines to create phone banks for first responders at Ground Zero since cellphone communications had become disabled after the towers fell. Lighting Maintainers set up dozens of generators and lighting towers that turned night into day for the first wave of rescue personnel. Our Bus Operators, some of whom evacuated citizens as the towers fell, later brought first responders to the site using our fleet of buses. Trades titles assisted in the rescue and recovery effort by cutting iron and lifting wreckage. Station Cleaners then performed the massive clean-up required to begin to rebuild the damaged subway stations and tracks at the site.

The NYC-MTA Funding Dispute: Why is Local 100 in this Fight?

In the 1990s, the MTA agreed to take over the job of providing specialized transportation for New York City's disabled and senior citizens who have difficulty walking. It took on this burden at the request of NYC government. Since then, the demand for paratransit service, known as Access-A-Ride, has soared.

Similarly, the MTA provides massive subsidies for student transportation in the city. It gives the city Department of Education valuable student MetroCards for school kids to ride buses and subway trains specifically to get to class and then back home. Essentially, the MTA acts as a complex yellow school bus apparatus on behalf of New York City.

These two programs are clearly outside the core mission of the MTA, yet the money to cover the cost comes right out of the MTA's Operating and Maintenance Budget. Providing these services to NYC residents is undeniably the responsibility of NYC government. But City Hall only reimburses the MTA for a small percentage of the costs to provide these necessary services to its residents. It is de Blasio's obligation, but transit riders and transit workers are getting stuck footing the bill.

Not reimbursing the MTA for these services, which NYC asked to be provided, is the equivalent of hiring a contractor to perform work for you - and then refusing to pay for it.

There's a name to describe this. It's called theft of service. And right now, the de Blasio administration is stiffing the MTA for more than $530 million a year by refusing to pay up for services that NYC has requested.

That's more than $530 million that annually could be used to help pay for real solutions to the subway crisis, which would improve the riders' experience - and our work lives.

TWU International President Samuelsen explains how de Blasio is pulling money out of the MTA Operating and Maintenance Budget in this CBS news story by Marcia Kramer: (just click on the image to get to the story).

TWU Mourns Station Agent Darryl Goodwin, 54

AUGUST 16 - It is with great sadness that TWU Local 100 announces the death of Darryl Goodwin, the Station Agent who was unjustly arrested by police and suspended by MTA bosses in May. The union and Goodwin’s family will take whatever steps are necessary to have Goodwin’s good name cleared posthumously, Vice President of Stations Derick Echevarria said. The family did not immediately reveal the cause of Goodwin’s death but he did have high blood pressure and other health issues, Echevarria said. Funeral arrangements are pending.

“We believe this unwarranted arrest had an underlying affect on his demise,” Echevarria said. “Darryl was stressed out and working a lot of overtime to recover the wages he lost. He never should have been arrested.”

Echevarria, who knew Goodwin, 54, since high school, described him as a “gentle giant.” “He was a big guy but a really nice guy,” Echevarria said. “Our hearts are broken.” Goodwin was working at the 59th St./Columbus Circle station when a suspected shoplifter fleeing a store above ground jumped the turnstile, police said.

Lt. Richard Khalaf of Midtown North said in a police complaint that his pursuit was thwarted because Goodwin twice refused to buzz him through a service gate – a charge Goodwin adamantly denied. Goodwin said that he remotely opened the gate from the booth as soon as he became aware of the situation in the busy station.

As police were arresting Goodwin at the booth for obstructing governmental administration, officers said he resisted. Police said Lt. Khalaf’s finger was cut when Goodwin wrested his Station Agent’s badge back from the officer’s hand. Police also charged Goodwin with assault and resisting arrest.

Another Station Agent in the booth denied the police officers’ version of events. “I witness [sic] the cop snatch the badge out of Mr. Goodwin’s hand and cut himself!” the Station Agent wrote in a statement to NYC Transit. “Mr. Goodwin never resisted arrest! He complied with everything the officer asked him to do.” The police complaint states that it was “impossible” for Khalaf to pursue the shoplifter without being buzzed through the service gate even though police officers are issued MetroCards for emergencies.

In a Facebook exchange, an officer identifying himself as Khalaf said he couldn’t jump the turnstile. You can read that post here. “I’m also 50 and might be able to scale the turnstile but might have busted my ass in doing so. Recovery time ain’t what it used to be.”

NYC Transit suspended Goodwin without pay after his arrest. Goodwin settled disciplinary charges by accepting a penalty of approximately 60 days without pay, Echevarria said.

The TWU Welcomes Staff Analyst Titles to Union Family

TWU Local 100 proudly welcomes more than 500 new members to the union family.  They are the MABSTOA Staff Analysts and Associate Staff Analysts, who voted overwhelmingly to join the TWU in a contested union election conducted over the past month by the NYS Public Employment Relations Board.

PERB released the final vote count on Wednesday, August 9, 2017 – (216 for TWU; 41 for the Organization of Staff Analysts and 27 for no union).

Members at two other recently organized MABSTOA groups, the Comp & Telecom titles and Career and Salary titles, overwhelmingly ratified contracts bringing solid wage increases and other important gains. Those contract victories played a substantial role in the Staff Analysts election win.

In a message to the new members, TWU International and Local 100 President John Samuelsen said: “We were thrilled when PERB released the results of the union election demonstrating the overwhelming support for TWU among you and your co-workers.  We will not let you down. We will proceed determinedly to begin negotiations for a first contract to deliver what has been promised during the campaign.”

Samuelsen added: “We all look forward to moving forward together in unity.”