Assemblyman Jim Brennan (D-Park Slope/Windsor Terrace) speaks at Wednesday’s Transit Justice rally on his bill to protect dedicated transit funding, which has passed in both houses of the legislature. The bill aims to make it politically hard for funds to be diverted from mass transit to any other purpose. The bill’s sponsor in the State Senate was Senator Marty Golden.
At the rally for transit justice outside MTA Headquarters on Madison Avenue, TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen spoke on the value of community-union coalition building, the economic power of union members within their communities, and the unacceptable demands which the MTA is insisting on as negotiations on a new contract for transit workers continue.
Three busloads of seniors from Co-Op city, along with family members, rank and file union members, and transit advocates demonstrated outside the regular monthly meeting of the MTA Board on Wednesday, July 24. Their message was simple: Your service restorations don't go far enough! Bring back the rest of the bus service you cut in 2010! Residents want the Bx 26 and Bx 28 lines back in service. The rally crowd heard from prominent politicians, including Mayoral Candidate Bill Thompson, Comptroller Candidate Scott Stringer, and Manhattan Borough President Candidate Robert Jackson, all of have been endorsed by TWU Local 100. They also heard from co-op city's own Helen Atkins, President of the Board of Directors of Riverbay Corp. Others in attendance included Vinny Alvarez, President of the Central Labor Council, and City Council Candidates Yetta Kurland, and Inez Barron, among many others. TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen addressed the crowd, talking on the issue of Local 100's contract fight and our determination not to give in to concessionary demands from the MTA.
Local 100 Recording Secretary LaTonya Crisp-Sauray expresses her "deep sadness" at the unfairness of today's court hearing to Daily News reporter Pete Donohue
On July 16, 2012, Bus Operator Jose Rondon was attacked while discharging passengers on his Bx10 Bus at 231st Street and Broadway just after noon. One year and one week later, his assailant, Fernando Lopez, 30, received five years’ probation at the hands of Bronx County Supreme Court Judge John Carter. Union members, who had expected jail time for Lopez, reacted with disgust. Lopez came into court with his mother, leaning on a crutch because of injuries received in a recent auto accident.
OA Division 1 Chair Frank Austin, who thought that ADA Tim Lynch would be able to convince Judge Carter to hit Lopez with substantial jail time, left court immediately after the judge handed down the sentence, not stopping to talk to Lynch or even look at him. The ADA was out-lawyered by Lopez’s defense counsel, who said that a plea deal offered earlier to her client should stand. Lynch brought up Lopez’s recent arrest on a larceny charge as well as the fact that Jose Rondon was in a “specially protected class,” – MTA employees on duty and in uniform – to no avail.
Transport Workers Union Local 100 President John Samuelsen snapped back last week after former Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph J. Lhota questioned his willingness to negotiate a new contract and accused him of taking a “gimme, gimme, gimme” bargaining stance.
During NY1’s televised Republican mayoral debate, Mr. Lhota was asked how he could be expected to settle all the city’s unresolved labor contracts when he’d been unable to reach an agreement with the transit union. The local’s 38,000 members have been working under an expired contract since both sides agreed to negotiate past the Jan. 15, 2012 deadline. Pacts for the other municipal unions are also expired—in many cases for at least three years—and talks stalled over Mayor Bloomberg’s insistence the city can’t afford to pay retroactive raises.
Claims TWU Ducked Talks
“The TWU canceled negotiating meetings 19 separate times” during his tenure, Mr. Lhota said, noting that there is still no contract six months after he quit to run for Mayor. Former New York City Transit head Thomas Prendergast was nominated as his successor shortly after, but wasn’t confirmed by the State Senate until late June. Talks are reportedly due to resume shortly.
Brooklyn Assemblyman Walter T. Mosley is carrying a crucial bill for New York City bus drivers. It would mandate the rapid installation of protective partitions on all buses.
TWU Local 100 has a number of free tickets to the Brooklyn Cyclones vs. State College game on Friday, August 9th. Game time is 7pm. The Cyclones play at MCU Park at Coney Island (the site of Local 100 Family Day.) Local 100 members can get five free tickets each -- first come, first served! To get your tix, call Special Projects at the Union Hall at 212-873-6000 ext. 2026 or 2157. Parking is not included in this offer. See you there!
TWU Local 100 members who are in dues arrears now have a simple and relatively painless way to restore good standing membership. On filling out a form which is now being carried into the field by union representatives and your elected officers, the MTA will begin double dues deductions each check until you are paid off. A member signature, pass number, and social security number validates the form, which is being printed on heavy stock by the Local 100 printing and mailing department. It is also available here on our website. Restoring your good standing membership is especially important now, as we hold the line against contract concessions and demand our retroactive pay from January of 2012 until the date we settle the next contract. Taking a stand in the street, on the airwaves, and in court costs money: that’s why it’s so important for every member in bad standing to get right with the union today. And now it’s easy. Double up and pay it off!
Call the union hall at 212-873-6000, extension 2083, to find out how much you owe if you don’t already know. Then fill out, sign the form, and return it in to the union hall, either by mail or in a sealed envelope to your rep or officer.
Bus Operator Clarence Jackson is home after being hospitalized for a vicious slashing July 3rd aboard his Bx 5 bus at the corner of Westchester Avenue and Southern Boulevard in the Bronx. On board cameras showed a young woman, wearing a white hoodie, standing and waiting by the Operator's seat after passengers exited the bus. OA Division 2 Division Chairman Frank Austin, who visited Jackson in the hospital, says that as the Operator made the stop announcement at around 4pm, with his left arm raised to grasp the intercom, his assailant cut him twice. The first cut required 32 stitches and the second needed 18, he said. Division Chair Austin speculates that this attack could have been a gang initiation, where the assailant wanted to mark the Operator's face. The bus partition on the Bx 5 prevented that. In response to an MTA spokesman's claim that partitions are expensive to install, Austin told Channel 7 news that if it wasn't for the partition, the attack would likely have been fatal. Two days earlier, another Bus Operator was assaulted in lower Manhattan by an assailant who punched her near the FDR Drive and Houston Street, then took her purse.
In accepting TWU Local 100’s endorsement for Mayor, Bill Thompson praised transit workers as the heart of the middle class and the indispensable ingredient that keeps New York moving. Just above the underground vault of the majestic old City Hall subway station, Local 100’s top officers and representatives called a grand press event to put forward all of our political endorsements. Proudly accepting our endorsement, along with Mr. Thompson, were Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who is running for Comptroller, Councilwoman Tish James, who is running for Public Advocate, Councilman Robert Jackson, who is running for Manhattan Borough President, and a host of City Council and Assembly candidates.
Dozens of TWU Local 100 members, either showing their LGBT pride or showing support and solidarity for our LGBT brothers and sisters took part the huge annual pride parade on Sunday, June 30. Backing the marchers was the Union van and a NYCT bus which went the route starting at 40th Street and Fifth Avenue down to the West Village. The TWU contingent drew spirited cheers and applause from many of the hundreds of thousands of people who lined the parade route. The parade was especially joyful this year because of the recent favorable rulings on equality coming from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Workers Independent News estimates that 1.7 million listeners nationwide heard their recent coverage of Local 100’s Zero Tolerance fight against exposure of our members and the public to diesel fumes.
Click here for the audio of WIN’s June 27 Labor Report. (Our story begins at 0:50.)
TWU Local 100 MABSTOA Division 2 Chair Frank Austin and his officers, including First Vice Chair Anthony Marshall (pictured) were out in force along Webster Avenue in the Bronx on July 1 as the MTA continued the roll-out of its Select Bus Service along the route of the BX 41. Management touts increased speed and ridership; TWU Local 100's main concern is the safety of passengers and our operators. "We hope SBS in the Bronx is a great success, but we're making sure the Bus Operators are safe in how they're doing it," said Frank Austin. "It's different in the Bronx, because the bus lane is not curbside, and buses must always come to the curb when boarding or discharging passengers. The Union is making sure they're doing that." At 9:30, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and MTA brass turned out for a congratulatory press conference which was hit by heavy rains. Bus service was unaffected.
Brooklyn community and political leaders spoke out loudly and clearly on Saturday, June 15th, calling on the MTA to use some of the Authority's recently revealed surplus to bring back the B37 to Park Slope, Bay Ridge, and Sunset Park. Led by Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez, speakers ticked off a long list of reasons why the B37 -- cut in 2010 -- should be put back in service, pronto. Advocates for the disabled said that 20,000 disabled persons lived on or near the bus route -- and have no other way of accessing mass transit since elevators do not make the R and N trains accessible to Brooklynites in wheelchairs. One disabled advocate noted that the "dollar vans" aren't accessible, either. Bay Ridge State Senator Martin Golden, Sunset Park State Senator Felix Ortiz, Cobble Hill Assemblywoman Joan Millman, two Mayoral Candidates -- Bill Thompson and Sal Albanese -- and three sitting City Councilmembers -- Letitia James, Sara Gonzalez, and Vincent Gentile, were all up in arms about the lack of service, and the devastating effect the loss of the route has had on working people. Local 100 President John Samuelsen summed up the action when he said: "When the union, on its own, tried to restore service, we've failed. When community groups, on their own, tried to restore service, they've failed. But when we all come together, there's nothing that can stop us." The rally was co-coordinated with Local 100 by our community partner in Sunset Park, UPROSE, a member of the Transit Forward Coalition.
A contingent of TWU Local 100 members marched to City Hall on June 13th, adding our voices to ten thousand municipal workers rallying for a contract. With virtually all of the public sector workforce without a current contract, the display of unity on stage included law enforcement, sanitation, teachers, health care and clericals along with teamsters and highway construction titles. TWU Local 100 Recording Secretary LaTonya Crisp-Sauray received a warm welcome from the crowd of workers as she brought her message that the middle class needs respect and a decent contract to City Hall. Although TWU Local 100 negotiates with the Governor and not the Mayor, we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the municipal labor coalition.
