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Executive Board Statement Against Violence and Intimidation

The TWU Local 100 Executive Board has approved a statement against intimidation, harassment, or violence against any union member or officer. You can read it here.

Contract Bargaining Training Held as Union Gets Ready for the Big Fight

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Dozens of officers participated in three days of contract negotiation training to prepare for the looming battle with the MTA.

The program featured expert instruction on topics such as the legal parameters of public sector bargaining, preparing for negotiations, membership engagement, developing proposals and using leverage to achieve goals. Officers also broke into labor and management teams to conduct mock negotiating sessions. Veterans sat shoulder-to-shoulder with younger up-and-coming officers, passing along knowledge gained from decades of experience and sharing ideas.

In addition, directors of Local 100 departments - Organizing, Member Services, Grievance and Discipline, Political Action, Safety, and Communications - gave presentations on department activities, data, goals, and strategies that could be deployed during different stages of the contract campaign.

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“We’re about to enter one of the most difficult contract negotiations of all time,” Local 100 President Richard Davis said. “The MTA says it has unprecedented budget deficits and is warning of doomsday scenarios with service cuts and steep fare hikes. City Hall has ordered up three rounds of budget cuts already. Some big private companies are laying off thousands of workers. We’re going to have to fight like hell and must be prepared. That’s what these last three days have been all about, getting prepared.”

A new Rapid Response Organizing Committee will start going to work locations next week to begin one-on-one discussions with members to hear about their issues and concerns.

The training was conducted over three days ending Friday, Jan. 13. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, one of the most powerful politicians in the state, came to meet with President Davis and share a few words with the officers participating in the training. It turned into a mini-pep rally with the Speaker leading a chant of “Union!”

“You are here to be trained,” she said. “You’re here to understand how this is supposed to work. And the reality is, it is going to work, because you have in your hearts and minds the best interest of the people you represent, period. If you come with that attitude, it will work, understanding that you set the tone. You set the bar for how labor rolls.”

Also coming by to support the Union were NY State Senator Shelley Mayer (D-Yonkers) and Westchester County Executive George Latimer.

The Local 100 contract with the MTA expires May 16.

Pres. Davis Joins Nurses on Strike to Pledge Our Support

TWU Local 100 President Richard Davis joined thousands of striking nurses on a picket line and pledged Local 100’s support in their struggle for a fair contract.

Speaking outside Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, Davis said transit workers know first-hand how vital nurses are to city residents in medical crisis. Transit workers brought nurses and other hospital staffers to their posts by bus and subway during the dark days of the pandemic. Like transit workers, nurses were too essential to stay at home.

“On behalf of Local 100, we stand in solidarity with you, and we will make sure we fight for you,” Davis said. “Yes, we can! Sí se puede!”

Thousands of nurses, members of the New York Nurses Association, walked off the job at 6 a.m. Monday at Mount Sinai and three campuses of the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. The nurses’ demands include “safe staffing.” Hospitals have not hired enough nurses to properly handle the volume of patients. As a result, nurses are overworked and stressed-out. Patients are receiving sub-standard care, nurses say.

Nurses on the picket said they appreciated Local 100’s support, just as they appreciated the service transit workers provided during the pandemic.

“Without transit, without the crosstown bus, I wouldn’t have been able to get to work,” a surgical ICU nurse with 25 years on the job said.

Fighting MTA Service Cuts: Sign the Petition

Local 100 President Richard Davis attacks the MTA for planning to cut subway service in an Op-Ed published today by the New York Daily News. In the piece, Davis says service cuts will force riders to wait longer for trains, experience more crowding, and lead to more anger and frustration being directed at transit workers.

He also says it’s “ridiculous” for transit management to claim that the service reductions “reflect what our customers are asking for.” In the history of mass transit, no one ever asked for less service and more crowded conditions.

You can read the Op-Ed here.

Click here to Sign the Petition

Save the Dates! Upcoming Union Events

Saturday, Jan. 28th: Mass Membership Meeting at the Sheraton Times Square (53rd & 7th Ave.) Open to all members in good standing.

Wednesday, Feb. 22: Black History Celebration at the Union Hall

Wednesday, March 15: Quill-Connolly Day (Irish Heritage) at the Union Hall

Tuesday, March 28: LOBBY DAY in Albany (Political Action to Advance our Legislative Agenda)

Wednesday, March 22: Women's Heritage Day at the Union Hall

Update on Collecting Agent involved in Shooting

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As many of you know from media accounts, one of our Collecting Agents was involved in a shooting at the Union St. subway station in Brooklyn Tuesday night. Stations Vice President Robert Kelley and his team quickly responded to the station and provided the Agent with support and assistance and were instrumental in getting him home to his family.

“We will continue to support our union brother through this process, but we are unable to comment further at this time,” Kelley said.

Union Slams MTA On Service Cuts, Assaults

TWU Local 100 Local 100 President Richard Davis, RTO Vice President Canella Gomez, and TWU International President John Samuelsen spoke out against planned subway service cuts at MTA Headquarters Wednesday. “Service cuts are a terrible, terrible idea,” Davis told MTA Chairman Janno Lieber and Board members at their monthly meeting.

“TWU Local 100 will fight you every step of the way.” The MTA is planning to reduce subway service on seven lines on Mondays and Fridays when ridership is lighter in part because suburbanites are choosing to work from home. But running fewer trains those days will make it harder for riders who don’t have the luxury of staying at home, including the many working-class, front-line, essential workers who also had to toil through the pandemic, Davis said.

Service cuts also will lead to more worker assaults, the union leaders warned. “We’re going to have more angry passengers waiting on the platform,” Gomez said. Planned cuts on the 1,6,7, E, F, Q, and L lines would happen in June if enacted. Gomez's remarks are here.

Investment Banker Jean-Francois Coste

Drunken Banker Punches Train Operator

An entitled rich investment banker punched one of our female Train Operators in the face for stopping him from going into a non-public area of a Brooklyn station. He was arrested but outrageously was later released without having to post bail.

Local 100 President Richard Davis issued a blistering public statement following the Friday, Dec. 16, 2022, attack at the Stillwell Ave. terminal station - and vowed that TWU would see the attacker in court.

“The public should be treating transit workers as heroes, not punching bags,” Davis said. “Time and time again we’ve stepped up for this city, most recently working through the pandemic, and this is the thanks we get. It has to stop. We will see this guy in court.”

Davis continued: “We’re going to send a strong message to the judges and prosecutors that they must take assaults against transit workers far more seriously. No more slaps on the wrist.”

Jean Francois Coste, 53, was charged with second-degree assault, a felony, and some misdemeanors. A judge did not impose bail and he was released ROR. “This is just another slap in the face to all transit workers,” RTO VP Canella Gomez said. “It’s amazing how quick you can go from heroes to zeros in this city.”

TO Tanya McCray was leaving the crew room at approximately 12:15 a.m. and closed the door so it would lock as an apparently intoxicated Coste approached on the mezzanine. He then punched her without warning, striking her in the face at least twice. She got in a few licks in herself, punching Coste in self-defense and swinging her lunch bag, which contained a thermos, at him. Another Train Operator came to her assistance and pushed Coste away.

“Thank God for him,” McCray said. “He really came to the rescue and helped me.”

Coste fled to the platform and boarded a train, but Local 100 members cornered him and made sure he didn’t go anywhere until the police arrived.

Applications Open for Local 100/M3 Technology College Scholarships

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Applications for our TWU Local 100 -- M3 Technology Scholarships are now open! Deadline is May 31, but don't delay. Click here for the easy online application form! Scholarships are open to members, their spouses, their children, and our Retirees, and their children and grand-children.

Richard Davis Sworn in as New Local 100 President

IB Image TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano – whose career as a union leader has spanned four decades – announced he was stepping down from the top position this morning. The Executive Board overwhelmingly voted to elevate Secretary-Treasurer Richard Davis to the presidency with 41 in favor, none opposed.

Utano, who has served as president since 2017, and was previously the Vice President of the Maintenance of Way Department, said he wants to spend more time with his family and enable a new generation of leaders to lead. Utano will continue to serve as Executive Director.

The Executive Board also voted to promote MOW Vice President John Chiarello to Secretary-Treasurer. Structures Chair Richard Rocco was named MOW Vice President.

In a statement to the membership, Davis said:

“I’d like to thank the Executive Board for this honor. Thank you for putting your faith and trust in me to lead our union forward.

And that’s exactly what I intend to do - move us forward and make this great union even greater. My mission is to build a better, stronger, more unified, and more effective TWU Local 100 that has an administration that is focused on you, the membership.

I promise to work tirelessly on your behalf and put your needs first. I will never stop working to make improvements on multiple key fronts, including safety, job security, your quality of life and your ability to take care of your families.

Priority number one is gearing up for our upcoming contract fights at the MTA and at our private bus and school bus divisions. I will be immediately sending teams into the field as part of an internal organizing and membership outreach campaign. I believe it’s vitally important that your voices be heard as we chart a course for the future. We also must be ready to mobilize to face any obstacles that are placed in our way.

You have my commitment to lead, to serve, and to fight.

Thank you,

TWU Local 100 President Richard Davis

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Davis, 53, joined NYC Transit as a Bus Operator at the age of 26. His first union position was chief line steward. He was elected MaBSTOA Division 1 Chair in 2004, then Vice President of the Department in 2014. Davis became Secretary-Treasurer in May following the retirement of Earl Phillips.

Utano, 60, joined NYC Transit in 1980 as an Electrical Helper at the age of 18. He was elected to his first union position the following year. He never lost an election, serving as Section Vice Chair, Section Chair, Division Chair and Vice President before becoming President in September 2017.