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Transit Assaults: Better Strategies Needed

BY PETE DONOHUE

Abuse of transit workers is rampant – and rising.

In the 12-month period ending Oct. 31, bus and subway workers reported being harassed by riders 2,176 times, according to police statistics provided by the MTA. That’s an 11% increase from the previous 12-month period. Harassment is a misdemeanor that encompasses such punkish behavior as threatening, shoving, kicking and spitting on someone. More serious misdemeanor and felony assaults also increased in the subway - but they declined on buses.

So what’s going on? Just like the attacks themselves, it’s hard to say with certainty. How do you explain a rider becoming so irate about being asked to pay the fare that he or she spits on a Bus Operator? How do you explain a rider, like off-duty police officer Mirjan Lolja, who tackled and throttled a female conductor doing platform duty in December 2014, apparently because he was frustrated about service delays and didn’t like how she answered his questions? In response to such brutish behavior, authorities over the last 15 years cobbled together a patchwork of strategies aimed at safeguarding transit workers. Some seem to be successful while others aren’t living up to their billing.

Bus partitions are the bright spot. There are now more than 4,000 buses with see-through partitions shielding Operators from the loons riding among us. Felony and misdemeanor attacks against Bus Operators dropped from 109 in the year ending in October 2014 to 83 in the year ending October 2015.

The legal system is baffling at best. Anyone who assaults a transit worker, theoretically, faces up to 7 years in state prison on a felony second-degree assault charge. That elevated punishment for injuring a transit worker was established by a state law that was passed with much fanfare in 2002. But few offenders get arrested, convicted and sentenced to state prison on that charge. Lolja, for example, was charged with a misdemeanor, a low-level crime. (He is due back in Bronx court Thursday, Dec. 17.)

Finally, there’s a program that called TransitWatch that could be dubbed TransitFlop. The program offers up to $2,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest and indictment of a rider who assaults a transit worker. Since its launch more than three years ago, only one reward has been paid, an MTA official said. The best move right now would be for the MTA, or even Gov. Cuomo, to appoint a task force with members of substance who can get things done, not retired fuddy-duddies who are now consultants.

The task force should sort out why harassments are up; identify what strategies that were enacted to safeguard transit workers in NYC are working and which ones aren’t. It also should look at how crimes against transit workers are being classified, charged and prosecuted by the police and district attorneys, and if the law needs to be changed again. Then the task force needs to draft a concrete plan of action. Being subjected to approximately 2,200 incidents of harassment and assaults a year – more than 6 incidents of abuse a day on average – simply isn’t acceptable for any workforce, especially one serving the public.

TWU International President Harry Lombardo and Local 100 President Samuelsen at the Dec 12 Mass Membership Meeting

Mass Membership Powers Up TWU for 2016 Fights

Speaking to a crowd of TWU Local 100 members in the same hall where our “greatest generation” voted to shut down the City fifty years ago, TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen laid out a new course for 2016, focusing on “money in the pockets of transit workers.” To an audience salted with dozens of veterans of the 1966 strike under Mike Quill, Samuelsen and TWU International President Harry Lombardo sounded the themes of TWU militancy and the strength of the union family. Samuelsen welcomed the newly organized members who have swelled our ranks to upwards of 42,000 and promised a no-holds-barred fight to better the working conditions of our call agents at GCS/Access-a-Ride. He recapped the contract fight of 2012-2014 and urged members to prepare themselves for a new campaign once the holidays are over. He also acknowledged the veterans of the TWU’s other big citywide strikes, in 1980 and 2005. More Mass Membership 2015 coverage will be featured in the next Transport Workers Bulletin.

AMNY: Fake Money Discipline Costing the MTA

DECEMBER 11 -- In a story out on newsstands today, AM New York reporter Rebecca Harshbarger reports on the MTA's policy on counterfeit bills. TWU Local 100 has been raising two issues with the MTA for months -- that Station Agents lack the proper equipment to identify counterfeits and that, because of this, are subject to unfair discipline. Hearings -- which revolve around the question of how to detect the frauds -- are costing the MTA more than the money lost through the fake bills, the article reveals. The MTA has new equipment to scan bills but instead tells Station Agents to rely on a special pen that can be defeated by counterfeiters. The union is calling on the MTA to install the new readers in every booth. Read the whole story here.

Pena Case: Nearly Two Years Without a Plea

DECEMBER 4:TWU Local 100 officers and rank and file came to Manhattan Criminal Court today for the 21st court hearing in the case of the People vs. Domonic Whilby, who drunkenly drove a bread truck into the M14 bus operated by William Pena, killing him early on the morning of February 12, 2014. They had the news that yet another postponement in the case until January 25 had been granted by Judge Gregory Carro, this time to allow a defense expert to produce a toxicology report. This was the same reason given for the last court postponement to today’s hearing.

Nancy Rodriguez, Willie’s widow, standing at the side of newly elected MABSTOA Vice President Richard Davis, asked Manhattan ADA Randolph Clarke why there had been so many delays in the case. Clarke replied that his office wanted to make sure that their case against Whilby would withstand any later motion to appeal a verdict. Nancy asked about the seemingly interminable hearings: “When does it stop?” Clarke gave no clear answer, saying, “I understand your frustration, but we want to make sure justice is served thoroughly and securely.”

Nancy had made it clear that she wants no plea bargain cut with Whilby attorney Laura Miranda, but instead wants the case against Whilby to go to trial with him facing the highest count of murder in the second degree.

Outside the court house, Nancy and her family joined Richard Davis and other MaBSTOA officers and members in this video appeal for union members to tie red ribbons from Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) – on their vehicles during his holiday season.

Re-Elected (l-r) Pres. John Samuelsen, Adm. VP Angel Giboyeaux, Rec. Secretary Latonya Crisp-Sauray, Sec-Treasurer Earl Phillips

Samuelsen, Stand United Top Four Re-Elected by TWU Membership

The Stand United Slate also won six of the seven Vice President positions.

Click here for the full results from the TWU Local 100 Elections Committee.

Not enough? Click here for the raw counts for each of the 20 ballots.

GCS Call Center Agent Esther Mota, represented by TWU Local 100, details working conditions to the MTA Board last month.

NY Times Covers GCS Contract Fight; Ties Worker Grievances to Fight for $15

NOVEMBER 28 -- The New York Times today ran a comprehensive piece on TWU Local 100's fight to secure decent wages and working conditions for members who toil at the Access-A-Ride call center on Northern Boulevard in Queens, tying their fight to the national push for a $15 living wage for workers. The piece chronicled the pushback by the Union since call center workers voted to have Local 100 as their bargaining agent against the intransigence of management, which has fired many who supported the Union. Management's hard line seems to have softened a bit after we called for a strike vote last month. The CEO of Global Contact Services, Greg Alcorn, who runs the operation, met twice with TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen last week in an effort to come to a settlement without a strike. The MTA Board has also been aggressively questioning GCS's handling of their contract. GCS has also allowed TWU Local 100 reps onto the property for the first time. Read the Times article here.

MTA Bus Members Ratify New Contract

NOVEMBER 24 -- Local 100 members employed by MTA Bus have ratified their new contract by an overwhelming 95 percent margin. The American Arbitration Association announced the results of the referendum at 3:00 p.m. this afternoon.

The contract covers nearly 2,200 members at MTA Bus as Bus Operators, Maintainers, Maintainer Helpers, Cleaner Helpers, Stock Workers and Assistant Stock Workers.

The wage and benefit package mirrors the gains secured in the TA/OA contract, with raises in every year, full retroactivity, and an impressive array of improved and new benefits.

The contract also brings a major breakthrough on the MTA Bus pension, which has been a massive problem for years, and is far less valuable in comparison to the public pensions covering TA and OA members.

Local 100 President John Samuelsen, who led the Negotiating team for the union, was finally able to punch through management's resistance on the pension issue.

Political Leaders: TWU Veterans Influential in Budget Victory

Some of New York State's most prominent politicians gave credit to the Union's political action achievements in supporting veteran's legislation that has led to a tentative budget deal in Albany. For the past two year, Local 100's Veterans Committee, spearheaded by RTO VP Kevin Harrington, has pushed for legislation that would have allowed US servicemen and women -- without regard to where they served --- buy back up to three years's pension credit. Governor Cuomo vetoed the bill twice - but has now signaled his intent to include the same provisions in next year's NYS Budget. At our Veteran's Appreciation NIght, Assemblyman Peter Abbate, State Sen. Martin Golden, and Brian Maher, chief aide to Assemb. William Larkin, Jr., the prime sponsor of the Veteran's bill, lavished praise on Local 100 as staunch fighters and advocates for all veterans. The video shows the cameraderie in the room and the strong alliance we have built with the legislators.

Health Fair Draws 300

With the MTA-NYCT / TWU Local 100 Health and Wellness initiative continuing, the Union and the MTA held another Health Fair at the 207th Street shop in Upper Manhattan. Over 300 members showed up, taking advantage of the free and confidential screenings as well as the massages. 20 influenza shots were administered. Health information and counseling was also available. A nutritional/healthy cooking series will be piloted on November 19th at the TWU Union Hall at 195 Montague Street in Brooklyn. This will be followed by a series of classes conducted by our medical carriers and others starting in 2016. The 2016 schedule will be published soon. Your health is critical to your job -- take advantage of these opportunities to safeguard it. IB Image

MTA Board is all ears as TWU Rep Dylan Valle discusses the situation at GCS.

TWU to GCS: Time's Running Out

It’s the 9^th inning with two outs for the hired-gun operator of the MTA’s Access-A-Ride Call Center.

Global Contact Services has been running the call center like the owner of a garment factory in the early 1900s. In less than two years, it has fired about 1,200 workers for minor - or simply bogus - transgressions. Some have been canned for supporting the union. Others have been disciplined for reporting late to work – even though they take Access-A-Ride because they have a disability and are unable to ride the subway, which has to be one of the most surreal, ironic and cruel situations you could dream up.

That’s like a cop offering grandma a ride home, and then giving her a ticket for hitchhiking. And by the way, grandma is a crossing guard – and in a wheelchair.

There is hope, however, that this Twilight Zone saga will have a good ending. After aggressive advocacy by TWU Local 100, the MTA chairman two months ago directed NYC Transit’s top executive, the MTA inspector general and the MTA auditor general to conduct thorough analysis of the North Carolina-based company. Speaking Wednesday at the board’s November meeting, Prendergast said the review would soon be completed.

“Time is of the essence,” Prendergast said. “We have heard from the workers about the conditions under which they are working and their urgent need to have these issues resolved.” This is lightning-quick for the MTA. The bureaucracy usually moves at a pace somewhere between a dead turtle and a glacier. The second reason for hope can be found in a statement about GCS that Local 100 President John Samuelsen released to the media Wednesday.

“TWU Local 100’s Executive Board unanimously voted on Nov. 10 to authorize a strike in response to the company’s abject refusal to respect the basic rights of call center workers for more than two years,” Samuelsen said. “I met GCS’s chief executive, Greg Alcorn, last week and we started a dialogue. Based on that meeting, I believe there’s a chance to improve the deplorable working conditions and reach a contract settlement. But if the dialogue breaks off again, we will resume organizing and planning for a strike.” The Call Center workforce is overwhelmingly minority women. After slashing wages after being hired by the MTA a few years ago, GCS now pays them between $9 and $11 an hour. That’s simply not acceptable in NYC in 2015. GCS faces the possibility of having its contact terminated by the MTA and faces a possible strike.

Ninth inning. Two outs. No room for error.