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.”

New TWU TV Ad Rips Mayor ‘delays-io’ for Stiffing Subway Fix Plan

TWU is ratcheting up the pressure on Mayor de Blasio for refusing to participate in the MTA’s comprehensive Action Plan to bring relief to NYC subway riders.

This is the second television ad TWU has released as part of its six-figure television, print and digital advertising campaign demanding de Blasio allocate a fraction of the city’s $4 billion surplus in taxpayer money to reverse the summer of hell NYC subway riders are enduring.

The first installment was a 30-second TV commercial that includes riders telling de Blasio to stop playing politics and match the funding , including the vital monies targeted for emergency repairs, pledged by Gov. Cuomo. “The mayor can’t run and he can’t hide from his responsibility,” TWU International and Local 100 President John Samuelsen said. “This is a crisis. The subway is in a meltdown. The riders, who are the mayor’s constituents, are suffering. We need real leadership, not finger pointing and political punting. No more delays -Mayor delays-io must step up now.”

TWU also has taken out full-page ads in major newspapers, including the New York Daily News as part of its campaign.

TWU “Crashes” de Blasio Presser to Tell the Mayor He Must Act Now

TWU Local 100 members and officials attended today’s de Blasio presser at Brooklyn Borough Hall at which the Mayor officially announced his call for the State Legislature to pass a millionaire’s tax on the City’s wealthiest residents to provide as much as $500 million annually to the MTA Capital Plan and $250 million for half-fares for the City’s working poor.

As the Mayor rambled on for 13 minutes about the legislation, TWU members held up signs telling the Mayor that he needed to spend some of the City’s current $4 billion surplus to fund at least half of the proposed MTA $850 million fix that would add as many as 2,700 new transit jobs in most titles. Local 100 Secretary Treasurer Earl Phillips told the media, after the Mayor left the stage, that TWU likes the concept of a millionaire’s tax, but that any help from the tax plan wouldn’t be available for at least another year, if not longer, if ever. “There is a crisis now, not next year,” said Phillips.  “The Mayor has a $4 billion surplus.  The MTA has a legitimate plan to address the current crisis. The Mayor needs to dip into that surplus now to help ease the current emergency.”

This morning, the fourth ad in the union’s campaign to get the Mayor to take responsibility to fix the subways, appeared in the New York Daily News on page 13.

Samuelsen Demands Mayor Pay Half for Subway Fix

NY1 Online: Labor pains for the mayor

TWU President John Samuelsen explains why the city's transit workers union is pressuring Mayor de Blasio.

New Ad Targets Mayor de Blasio’s “Lies”

Local 100 kept turning the screws on Mayor de Blasio today (Monday July 31st) with a second print ad in the New York Daily News and other newspapers calling out the Mayor for “lying” about his responsibility to help fund the MTA’s plan to end the “summer of hell” for transit riders.

The new ad depicts de Blasio as Mayor Pinocchio under the headline, “Liar, Liar, Tracks on Fire.” It tells the Mayor that he “can help reduce train breakdowns, signal failures and track fires by allocating a fraction” of the City’s $4 billion surplus.

The first ad in the series, which appeared in last Thursday’s (July 27th) Daily News, showed the Mayor atop his $4 billion surplus under the headline, “Get Off Your Cash” and help fund the MTA plan.

The union is also running TV ads on the same subject on NY 1 News, and several other big cable outlets that includes riders telling de Blasio to stop playing politics and match the funding pledged by Gov. Cuomo.

Utano to City Hall: Your MTA Board Members Must Step Up

JULY 26 – TWU Local 100 Vice President of Maintenance of Way Tony Utano, speaking for the union at today’s meeting of the MTA Board of Directors, said the City of New York should shoulder the responsibility for funding half of the projected cost to allow the MTA to overcome its recent reliability crisis. Calling the proposal by MTA CEO Joe Lhota that outlines a new multi-million dollar spending plan “solid,” Utano noted that the money will go in part towards inspecting subway signals and tracks more thoroughly, responding to equipment failures faster, and to implementing a much more aggressive schedule for replacing equipment. Speaking to city appointees on the MTA Board, he said: “no more political games, no more avoiding responsibilty. What’s fair is fair. If the Mayor doesn’t want to pay his fair share, city board members should just walk away and resign.”

Also testifying for the Union was Station Agent and EB Member Vanessa Jones, who said transit workers face frustration in dealing with the overcrowded system as well as verbal and physical abuse on the job, which she called “overwhelming.” We are targets, she said. She spoke of the importance of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s commitment to fund half of the project costs of system restoration and urged City representatives to do the same.

Daily News: TWU Presents Ten-Point Plan to Help Fix Subways

by Dan Rivoli, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, Friday, July 21, 6:00 AM

The scene at 168 St. station as the A, C, B and D lines were either cut entirely or between certain stops on July 17. (NATALIE BRITO VIA TWITTER)

The head of the city Transit Workers Union knows what's behind the summer straphanger nightmare: Too many budget cuts. Not enough upkeep and inspections. And mismanagement by the clueless hierarchy at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which remains unable to fix the sprawling subway system. "This is my take on the MTA board," said blunt-speaking John Samuelsen, president of Transport Workers Union 100, in an exclusive interview with the Daily News.

"It's a bunch of bosses and a bunch of transit advocates and, for the most part, a bunch of people that went to college and use a bunch of big words and talk back and forth about each other and talk past each other a lot." Samuelsen, in addition to dissecting the management decisions that he blames for the current woes, offered his own fixes for the mess.

Ten W'chester Family Day Winners Get Off B'way Tix

TWU members and their families who came to our Westchester Family Day earlier this month had the chance to win show tickets at the Daily News's booth at the event. Now we've been informed by the News that we have ten winners, who are Eloise Aponte, Betty Casiano, Shayna Cody, Andres Contreras, Viviana Guzman, lisette Grullon, Angelica Marin, Domenica Mateo, Del Nowely Sanchez, and Florangel Santo. Each winner gets a voucher for a family four pack for the Gazillion Bubble Show off Broadway at the New World Stage Theater. Congratulations!

Station Agent Percillia Augustine-Soverall

Seven Years for Booth Arsonist

Good riddance.

A Brooklyn man who tried to rob a station agent - and then attempted to set her booth on fire - is going to state prison. Everett Robinson, 52, pled guilty Wednesday to attempted robbery in Brooklyn Supreme Court. A judge is now scheduled sentence Robinson to seven years behind bars next month. Robinson doused the booth aperture with gasoline and lit a rag with hopes of sparking an inferno. Fortunately, the station’s fire-suppression system snuffed out the flames - but it was a deadly dangerous, and incredibly callous, criminal act.

“This defendant tried to rob an MTA employee who was simply doing her job and put her and the public in serious danger when he started a fire inside a subway station, making the prison term he will receive appropriate and just,” Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement to Local 100.

Robinson’s victim, Station Agent Percillia Augustine-Soverall, 45, said she was satisfied with the punishment, which is part of a plea agreement Brooklyn prosecutors hashed out with Robinson’s defense attorney. She has returned to work and is focusing on the future. “Every day is a struggle but I have to move forward,” she said. “I can’t let this deter me. I just hope no other station agent has to go through what I went through.” Augustine-Soverall was in the booth at the Nostrand Ave. station on the No. 3 line in Crown Heights one Friday night last August when Robinson poured a liquid that smelled like gasoline into the aperture, she said.  “He said that if I didn’t give him the money, he would light me up,” Augustine-Soverall, who has been on the job about five years, said.

Robinson then held up a shirt or rag, lit in on fire and tried to stuff it through the opening. 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 said. “I couldn’t do anything…I just started crying. I was in shock.”

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Bruce Balter is scheduled to formally sentence Robinson on Aug. 16. In his statement, Gonzalez, who is running to fill the DA seat vacated by the sudden death of Ken Thompson earlier this year, also said in his statement to Local 100 that he is “committed to protecting our dedicated transit workers, who all too often are targets of threats and violence, and will continue to ensure that those who attack them are punished.” Such a pledge from a prosecutor is always welcome, and Local 100 has endorsed Gonzalez in the race.

But Local 100 didn’t take anything for granted in the Robinson case. Dozens of TWU Local 100 members and officers attended Robinson’s arraignment before another judge, William Harrington, packing the courtroom and casting withering stares at the criminal. 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 Chairman Joe Bermudez told the reporters Local 100 was pleased with the charges brought by prosecutors. But they blasted Justice Harrington for denying a media request to take Robinson’s photograph 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. It was a good show of solidarity. It demonstrated to prosecutors and judges in the building that the Local 100 and its 42,000-strong membership was watching.

TWU's Westchester Picnic Brings Hundreds to Yonkers Park

JULY 8 -- Top leadership including TWU and Local 100 President John Samuelsen joined hundreds of members from School Bus properties and Liberty Lines for a fun-filled Family Day at Redmond Memorial Park in Yonkers. Our union hosted the annual party with plenty of great food, music, and kiddie activities like a bouncy house and face painting. Top officers included Secretary-Treasurer Earl Phillips, Recording Secretary LaTonya Crisp-Sauray, Administrative VP Nelson Rivera, and VP's Tony Utano, Richie Davis, and Pete Rosconi. We were also joined by local political leaders including State Senate Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, State Senator George Latimer, Assemblywoman Shelley Mayer, and local City Council members. Assemblywoman Mayer has made pushing our earned sick time legislation in Westchester one of her main priorities. At the event, President Samuelsen pledged to continue to put major union resources into our School Bus Division to increase union market share in the industry. He lauded Division Chair Gus Moghrabi for "delivering more and more members" into the union. Enjoy the photos from this festive day!

Transit Workers Respond as We Always Do in Latest Emergency

As City, State and MTA officials seemed to be losing their collective heads over the ‘A’ Train derailment on Tuesday morning, TWU train crews and Maintenance of Way personnel calmly and quickly got the situation under control.

The derailment at the end of the morning rush caused panic among the passengers as smoke invaded some of the cars. The train’s crew immediately began an orderly and professional evacuation.  The crew got the vast majority of passengers to walk to the front of the train to get out onto the platform through the first two cars which made it into the station.  Some panicked passengers left the train from the rear onto the tracks to walk back to the previous station.  The crew urged those passengers to return to the train and get out the safe way through the front.  Most listened.

After all passengers were accounted for, Local 100 Maintenance personnel moved in like the cavalry.  All MOW titles responded.  Debris was removed from the tracks, signals were repaired, and the train was rerailed and moved out of the way.  Modified service was restored before the evening rush. MOW members continued work throughout the night to get the system ready for the morning.

Tony Utano, TWU Local 100 Vice President for the Maintenance of Way Division, said: “This was a serious derailment, with quite of bit of damage to signals and some structural damage to the walls.  Our members worked as fast and safely as possible to bring the system back to normal.”

Local 100 President John Samuelsen responded to numerous media outlets and insisted that subway system needs a substantial and immediate infusion of cash, mainly from the City of New York, for non-capital state of good repair work. “The long-term capital projects are vital to providing a modern, safe, reliable system in the future,” said Samuelsen.  “But what is needed today, immediately, is more financial resources for regular, on-going maintenance to insure that the system can handle today’s record ridership.”

Exclusive photos of the scene were provided by Track Chair Paul Navarro and Vice Chair Duvet Williams.

Click on the following links to see how the story of the derailment played out in the media, and how TWU members and officials are quoted.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/motorman-stayed-calm-harlem-subway-derailment-article-1.3283824

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Transit-Dispute-After-MTA-Supervisors-Suspended_New-York-431390943.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/subway-supervisors-suspended-train-derailment-article-1.3284904

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/28/nyregion/subway-derailment-inquiry.html

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/manhattan/transit/2017/06/28/a-train-derailment-latest.html

http://pix11.com/2017/06/28/supervisors-suspended-amid-harlem-subway-derailment-probe/

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Subway-System-Meltdown-Emergency-Commuter-Frustration-New-York-Penn-Station-Amtrak-Summer-Work-431566333.html

http://abc7ny.com/traffic/2-mta-track-supervisors-suspended-in-subway-derailment/2159386/

Union Protests Arrest of Co-worker By ‘Overzealous’ Police Lieutenant

TWU Local 100 members and officers converged on Manhattan Criminal Court at 100 Centre Steet this morning (June 29, 2017) to support fellow transit worker, Darryl Goodwin, who Local 100 Stations Vice President Derrick Echevarria says was arrested on trumped up charges by “an overzealous Police Lieutenant who got up on the wrong side of the bed.” Station Agent Goodwin was working lunch reliefs on May 18th when the Police Lieutenant claims Goodwin refused to electronically buzz him through a gate as he pursued a shoplifting suspect.

Echevarria said that the Police version of events that led to Goodwin’s arrest “is totally inconsistent with the guy I have known since we went to high school together. Darryl is a hardworking, quiet person who has an outstanding service record with New York City Transit over a 27-year career. His arrest was an outrage, and an overreach by someone with anger management issues, and we’re here to support our co-worker against these false charges.”

Quality Bus Members Approve Contract, 146-8

JUNE 23 -- TWU Local 100 School Bus Operators at Brooklyn-based Quality Transportation voted overwhelmingly to approve a new contract on Friday, June 23. The agreement, which runs from July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2020, and brings top pay for Drivers to $31 after nine years of service, was approved by a vote of 146 to 8. About 220 Drivers work for the company.

Other contract provisions include a higher 401(k) from the employer, the granting of a paid emergency leave day in addition to existing vacation days and holidays, and a yearly safety bonus for no accidents. Another provision in the new contract gives employees five days bereavement paid leave for the loss of an member of their immediate family. This recognizes that many Drivers, immigrants to the US, have family abroad.

Local 100 School Bus Division Chair Gus Moghrabi, who headed up the union negotiating team, MOW Vice President Tony Utano and MOW LES Chair John Chiarello, and Director of Organizing Frank McCann were among the union officials who visited on the day of the vote.

TWU Secures Legislature Approval of Station Agent Pension Buy-Back Bill

The New York State Legislature has passed one of TWU’s top legislative targets for the 2017 session in Albany, the Station Agent Buy Back bill.  The long sought-after measure enables Station Agents who were laid off during MTA Chairman Jay Walder’s malicious job and service cutbacks in 2010 to buy back pension credits lost during their furloughs.

“We have been fighting to right the injustice perpetrated on our members and the riding public by Jay Walder for a number of years,” said TWU Local 100 and International President John Samuelsen.  “I am confident the Governor will sign this bill so that our members who were so negatively affected by the 2010 layoffs can finally become whole, at least as it relates to their service time.”

State Sen. Martin Malave Dilan carried the bill for the union on the Senate side, and Assemblywoman Latrice Walker performed heroically on the House side.

The union’s Political Action team has been pressing hard for the bill the entire legislative session.  Rank-and-file members underscored the union’s resolve to win the measure this year at its union wide Lobby Day event on May 16, 2017 and then during a mini-Lobby Day event on June 13, 2017.

Nearly 500 Station Agents were laid off in the 2010 cutbacks.  Many were out as long as two years before being recalled to their jobs.

Former MTA Chairman Walder is long gone, but his actions against transit workers and riders have lingered.  “This bill allows us to close the book on Walder and his attacks on the workforce and passengers,” said Local 100 Vice President Derrick Echevarria.

Executive Board Names Shirley Martin New CED Vice President

JULY 31 -- The TWU Local 100 Executive Board today unanimously named veteran CED officer Shirley Martin as Vice President of Car Equipment.  She will fill out the unexpired term of Vice President Nelson Rivera, who was elevated to Administrative Vice President last March.

Rivera introduced the motion on Martin at the monthly Executive Board meeting at Union Headquarters.  It was seconded by Vice President Tony Utano.

After the vote, Martin was asked to join the meeting and was sworn into office by Local 100 and International President John Samuelsen to the enthusiastic applause of the Board.  She is the first woman to serve as Vice President from CED.

Shirley is a 25-year veteran of New York City Transit’s Car Equipment Department.  Hired as a Car Maintainer B, a machinist title, she was the first woman to operate the wheel grinding machine at Coney Island Overhaul, that shapes subway car wheels into true circles.

In her native Jamaica, Martin was also the first woman to graduate from Kingston Technical High School as a Machinist, then going to work – also in a first – for the Bauxite Company, an industrial firm that extracted the valuable mineral in aluminum production.  She was also the the first woman union rep of Jamaica’s National Workers Union (NWU) at the Bauxite Company.

Martin’s TWU Local 100 union career includes positions as Shop Steward, Division Vice Chair for Coney Island Overhaul Shop, Recording Secretary for the Division, Division Chair, and Executive Board Member.

Her objectives for her new assignment: “Get back into the field, visit the different shops, talk to our terminal cleaners, and address safety issues.”