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Signal Helper Monique Brathwaite in Harlem Hospital

Transit Workers Deserve Good Raises

BY PETE DONOHUE

Monique Brathwaite, 36, a single mother, took a job working on NYC’s dangerous subway tracks to better provide for her four boys. Now, she’s lying in a hospital bed in Harlem with severe burns. Surgeons had to amputate one arm below the elbow. Brathwaite, 35, was horribly unlucky. She tripped and fell onto the electrified third rail, which carries 600 volts of electricity. But you could also say she was fortunate. She very easily could have died. Transit workers are killed on the job regularly.

For a Go Fund Me page to help Monique with her recovery, click here.

NYC Transit doesn’t suspend subway service for many of the inspection and regular repair jobs transit workers carry out every day and night. Workers have to dodge trains and keep clear of the electrified - and always present - third rail. Subway conductors, bus operators, station cleaners and other transit workers also are often targets for the criminals and lunatics out there who have equal access to the bus and subway system as the rest of us. At least 234 transit workers were killed or fatally injured on the job since 1946, many of them were struck by trains while doing maintenance or construction projects. Twelve transit workers were killed on the job over the last 15 years:

*Samuel McPhaul was electrocuted by the third rail near Grand Central Station in Manhattan in July 2001.

* Christopher Bonaparte was killed by an A train at the Liberty Ave. station in East New York, Brooklyn, in April 2002.

* Joy Anthony was killed by a No. 3 train near the 96th St.-Broadway station in Manhattan in November 2002.

* Kurien Baby was killed by an E train near the Canal Street station in Manhattan in November 2002.

* Conductor Janell Bennerson was killed when her head slammed into an ill-placed fence post at the end of the Aqueduct/N. Conduit Ave. station in Ozone Park, Queens, in January 2003.

Italian Day 2016

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Sopranos Actor Vincent Pastore -- whose mob nickname has taken on added heft after remarks by presidential candidate Donald Trump -- picked up the Man of the Year Award at Local 100's annual Italian Heritage celebration. Pastore, a SAG-AFTRA member who has been vocal about not taking non-union jobs, was praised by President Samuelsen as a trade unionist at the event, which also featured four other actors who appeared on The Sopranos. MOW Vice President Tony Utano, affectionately introduced by LES Chair John V. Chiarello as Local 100's own Godfather, brought his family to the dinner and proudly welcomed several hundred union members to the event. All attendees had great food catered by Clemente's, as well as the best cappucino and pastries that Brooklyn has to offer. Salut! Enjoy the slides and be sure to come back next year!

How the Mayor is Failing Labor

In an op-ed for the Daily News, featured on the cover of today's paper, TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen takes NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio to task for faltering support for organized labor. Read the complete op-ed article here.

Transit Workers Up in Lights at Times Square

TWU Local 100 members bring millions of New Yorkers and visitors in and out of Times Square -- the Crossroads of the World -- in a fast-paced, 24/7 rhythm that moves with our buses and trains.

If all those people didn’t know who really moves New York underground on subways and above ground on buses, they’ll be reminded of it on a giant Times Square jumbotron right across from a subway entrance.

That's because TWU Local 100 has purchased time on the big screen at 1500 Broadway (at 43^rd Street) to show New Yorkers who their City’s real movers and shakers are.

Here is the first 15-second segment that will be played four times an hour for 20 hours per day for the three-month period of Oct. 15, 2016 to Jan. 15, 2017 (which is not coincidentally the expiration of our agreement).

Local 100 President John Samuelsen explained that the messaging would first and foremost highlight transit workers’ contributions to the economic and social fabric of New York. He said that future messages would shine a light on the union’s fight for a new on-time contract, and be used as a tool to generate interest in union events such as our contract kickoff rally on Nov. 15, 2016, outside 2 Broadway.

Russian Day a Wonderful Afternoon at Tatiana's

OCTOBER 9 -- TWU's Russian Day at Tatiana's on the Brighton Beach boardwalk was another display of diversity and union power. Line Equipment Signal Chair John Chiarello worked closely with Executive Board Member Grigory Dunichev of Car Equipment to bring 1200 members from all over the Union to the event. Besides huge turnouts from CED and MOW, members from TA Surface and Private Lines -- Quality Bus -- were represented. "Russian Day began during horrible weather conditions," Chiarello said, "but even with a massive storm outside we filled Tatiana's to capacity." Grigory Dunichev praised the 20-member Russian Heritage Committee for their outstanding work in arranging the event. "They put out a very good effort. As a result, it went very smoothly and was a big success based on feedback from the membership." Dunichev noted that the gypsy dance troupe Danchenko got President Samuelsen down onto the dance floor where he proved equal to the task.

Top Union officers including President John Samuelsen and Secretary-Treasurer Earl Phillips greeted members and received prominent public officials, including Comptroller Scott Stringer, who President Samuelsen encouraged to step up to run for the Mayoralty, and New York State Commissioner of Labor Roberta Reardon. Local political leaders including Councilman Alan Maisel also attended. There was dancing, great food, and of course spirits to keep everyone in a festive spirit. Enjoy the slide and video show!

Nuestras Naciones, our Annual Celebration of Hispanic Heritage

Enjoy our slide show from this year's event, which took place at the Union Hall and featured a salute to Ecuador!

We Remember Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson, a Powerful Fighter for Human Rights

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TWU Local 100 mourns the passing of Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson, at the age of 50, from cancer. DA Thompson was a shining star in Brooklyn, an outspoken leader in the criminal justice arena, and a solid supporter of transit workers. DA Thompson attended TWU Local 100’s rally in support of a good contract in October of 2013 on the anniversary of Super Storm Sandy and spoke powerfully at our Black History Celebration on February 25, 2015. His speech at our event is a fitting commemoration of Ken Thompson’s values and what he stood for.

Samuelsen Op Ed in the Daily News: The raise transit workers deserve: The state and MTA, which have the money, must pay bus and subway professionals more.

They can't really protect us. So they damn well should pay us. The unique stresses and perils that come with being a transit worker have been on full display in recent months.

On Sept. 14, a rider with a chip on his shoulder and some screws loose in his head slammed a female conductor against a wall on a J train. The next day, someone smacked a B-train conductor with a bag. Weeks earlier, another miscreant set fire to a station booth while an agent was inside.

You can find an example every single day of a bus or subway worker being assaulted or abused: punched, spat upon, threatened, knocked to the ground or worse.

Members Pack Brooklyn Courtroom in Arson Case

Dozens of TWU Local 100 members went to Brooklyn Supreme Court Thursday to face down a lowlife who tried to set a token booth on fire during a failed robbery. About 30 union officers and members filled the public rows behind the prosecutor’s table as Everett Robinson was arraigned on attempted murder, attempted assault in the first degree and other charges. Robinson briefly turned and took notice of the TWU Local 100 contingent glaring at him. He was then led shackled back to jail on Rikers Island. Justice William Harrington continued Robinson’s bail requirement: $50,000 cash or $75,000 bond.

Local 100 members then marched down the hallway with their fists in the air as photographers from the New York Daily News and New York Post snapped away.

Stations Vice President Derick Echevarria and Stations Chairman Joe Bermudez told the reporters they were pleased the Brooklyn district attorney’s office jacked up the charges against Robinson to attempted murder and first-degree assault. Robinson was initially charge by police with attempted arson and second-degree assault, which carry significantly lower maximum prison sentences. He now faces a minimum five years behind bars and a maximum 25 years upstate. But Echevarria and Bermudez were angered that Justice Harrington denied - without explanation - a media request to take photographs of Robinson in the courtroom. “Why is he coddling someone who tried to kill one of our members, a Station Agent who was simply doing her job serving the riders?,” Bermudez said.

Station Agent Percilla Augustine-Soverall, 44, told police that she was in the booth at about 10:45 p.m. on Aug. 12 when Robinson doused the aperture with a liquid that smelled like gasoline. “He said that if I didn’t give him the money, he would light me up,” Augustine-Soverall said. Robinson then held up a shirt or rag and lit it on fire, according to the criminal complaint filed by NYPD Det. Daniel Artega. The fire apparently spread more quickly than Robinson anticipated, forcing him to drop it to the floor before he could stuff it into the booth’s opening, according to a law enforcement source.

Still, the smoke from the burning cloth filled the mezzanine and booth, triggering the Halon fire-suppression system. “Everything was just cloudy in the booth,” Augustine-Soverall told the New York Daily News. “I couldn’t do anything…I just started crying. I was in shock.” Agent Augustine-Soverall was not physically injured but remains traumatized.

Indian Day a Festive Night

On September 24, at the IBEW Local 3 hall in Queens, we held our annual day celebrating transit workers of Indian heritage. Enjoy the slide show!