Conductor Kevin Bartsch, also an EMT, acted quickly to save a life on Good Friday.

TWU Local 100’s Transit Heroes -- Doing Great Things Above and Below New York City

BY PETE DONOHUE

An F-train rider in Queens came back from the dead three days before Easter Sunday. The man was slumped in his seat without a pulse. But Conductor Kevin Bartsch revived him with CPR. “He jumped off the floor…,” Bartsch told Newsday and The New York Post. “I was telling him, ‘You just died. You need to relax and listen to what I’m telling you.’ “
Bartsch’s life-saving heroics make him a very strong contender for a new award: TWU Local 100’s Transit Heroes Award.

“Our members do great things above and below the streets of NYC all the time,” Local 100 President Tony Utano said “They deserve to be recognized and honored by their union, at their Union Hall.” The N.Y. Daily News has held an annual award contest in Manhattan since 2012. The News, however, informed the union earlier this year that it was discontinuing the program. Utano was already considering starting TWU’s “Transit Heroes” when the News pulled the plug.

Transit Heroes will honor transit workers who do exceptional deeds for their riders, co-workers or communities. The Communications Staff will collect nominations in the spring and summer. The elected officers on the Executive Committee will then vote on this year’s winners. An exact date for the event has not yet been selected.

In addition to being interviewed by Newsday and the New York Post, Bartsch appeared on several television stations. He explained that he knew how to handle the emergency situation because he has been a volunteer EMT in the city and Long Island. “When it all was going on, training mode took over,” he said. “I did what I had to do.”
One rider who was saw Bartsch in action was effusive in her praise. “He was amazing and was really heroic,” Amy Harris told The Post. “He saved that man’s life.”

To nominate a Transit Hero, email communications@twulocal100.org. Include the full name of the candidate and an explanation of why they deserve recognition. Include your contact information (cell phone and email) and the title, work location and contact information (if known) of the candidate. We anticipate five to 10 awards being issued at a special event in the fall.

Executive Board Elevates Costales to VP, Goodridge-Seymour to Ex. Bd.

APRIL 19 – The TWU Local 100 Executive Board today voted overwhelmingly to elevate RTO Executive Board Member Joe Costales to Vice President of RTO.  The Board also voted to replace longtime MABSTOA Executive Board member Christopher Magwood, who is retiring, with Harriet Goodridge-Seymour, currently Vice Chair at Mother Clara Hale Depot.

Brother Costales has been with transit since 2000 and has been active in the union since 2005.  He has served on the Executive Board since 2015 and prior to that was Chair of the Conductor Tower Division of RTO. 

Sister Goodridge-Seymour has 23 years with transit, and has held positions on Local 100’s Womens’ Committee as well creating the MABSTOA handbook for new hires.

Goodridge-Seymour is the first woman to serve as an Executive Board Member from MABSTOA's Divison 1. The vote to confirm Ms. Goodridge-Seymour was unanimous.

Gov. Cuomo Tours 207th, Announces Full Funding of Subway Action Plan

Above: Gov.  Andrew Cuomo, touring the 207th Street Barn in Upper Manhattan, discusses the full funding of the Subway Action Plan, which will result in the hiring of hundreds of additional TWU Local 100 members. He praised the efforts of the transit workforce. Photos of the tour are below:

TWU Mourns Passing of CTA Lynwood Garner, After Long Battle with Cancer

CTA Lynwood Garner, whose decade-long battle with cancer after surviving a shooting was chronicled in our union publication last issue, has died. The announcement was made by Executive Board Member Mario Galvet. Here are the arrangements for our Brother: There will be a wake on Friday, April 13, 2018 from 4 to 7pm at Benta’s Funeral Home, 630 St. Nicholas Ave, New York, NY 10030. There will be a viewing at the same location on Saturday, April 14, 2018, from 9 to 10am. A service will take place at 10am on Saturday at St. Joseph of The Holy Family at 405 West 125th Street, New York NY 10027. The interment and a repast will follow. Brother Garner had 27 years of service with NYCT. Read the family's bereavement notice here.

Local 100 President Tony Utano Blasts de Blasio for Ignoring The Wakes and Funerals of Fallen Transit Workers

APRIL 4 -- TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano released the following statement to the press April 4, 2018 denouncing Mayor de Blasio for not attending services for St. Clair Richards Stephens and Stephen Livecchi, who were killed on the job a week apart in late March.  Richards Stephens’ wake and funeral service were held on March 29th and 30th in the Bronx.  Livecchi’s wake and funeral were held on April 2nd and 3rd in Queens.

“Mayor de Blasio should be ashamed of himself. Two transit workers were killed on the job  – and the mayor couldn’t be bothered over the last week to attend either of their wakes or funeral services. He didn’t even send a representative on his behalf. He made no gesture of any kind to recognize that these two hardworking men lost their lives in service to the city of New York. That is just despicable. It’s a slap in the face of every bus and subway worker in the city. We move nearly 8 million New Yorkers in the five boroughs, including hundreds of thousands of NYC public school students and municipal workers, every single day. Without MTA transit workers like St. Clair Richards Stephens and Stephen Livecchi nobody could get to their job, or school, or anywhere else. The city couldn’t function. Transit workers will never forget Mayor de Blasio’s total lack of respect.”
 
Richards Stephens, a 23-year-old  Trackworker from the Bronx, suffered a fatal injury when he fell from an underground ledge in a subway tunnel in Harlem on March 20th.  He started work at NYC Transit just six months earlier.

Livecchi, 59, a Helper at the College Point bus depot in Queens, was struck and killed by a bus in the facility on March 27th. A Queens resident, Livecchi had been on the job for 37 years and was on the verge of retirement.

The Mayor has four representatives on the MTA board.  None of them attended either.  The elected officials and transit executives who did pay their respects included:
New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul; N.Y. State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon; City Council Speaker Corey Johnson; MTA Chairman Joe Lhota; MTA Managing Director Ronnie Hakim; and NYC Transit President Andy Byford. NY1 news ran the story as part of an all afternoon news loop today, April 4, 2018.

Services for MTA Bus Helper Stephen Livecchi, Line of Duty Death March 27 2018

Services for Trackworker St. Clair Richards Stephens, Line of Duty Death March 20 2018

Lobby Day 2018 -- A Show of Power in Albany

1800 transit workers came to Albany on March 27th to lobby legislators in the Senate and Assembly, pushing our legislative agenda, which includes fixing the Tier 6 pension, protecting the jobs of our Subway Conductors, supporting plans to beef up funding for the MTA, giving grievance rights to our School Bus Drivers and Monitors, protecting our members' families from the effects of diesel exhaust, and supporting efforts to blunt the expected impacts of the Janus v. AFSCME decision. Lobby Day was also an occasion to renew ties and unite as a TWU union family. Enjoy the highlight photos.

President Utano Asks for Moment of Silence for Trackworker St. Clair Richards Stephens; Asks Members to Attend Services

Tony Utano Speaks to News Media on Death of Track Worker St. Clair Richards Stephens

Local 100's Political Breakfast: President Utano Outlines the Union's Priorities in City Legislation

Quill Connolly Day an Irish Celebration of our Founder, Mike Quill

MARCH 15 -- Quill Connolly Day celebrates our founders: TWU Local 100 honored the memory of Irish martyr James Connolly, a hero of the 1916 Easter Rising, and the man he inspired, Mike Quill, the Founder of the TWU. A festive evening with traditional Irish fare was enlivened by speeches from TWU International President John Samuelsen, who spoke of the cause of a united Ireland, and from RMT Assistant General Secretary Steve Hedley, representing the transit workers of Britain. Hedley gave an impassioned defense of Irish Republican socialism and industrial unionism. RMT President Sean Hoyle also spoke, recalling the words of the great Bob Crow, who helped cement the longstanding friendship between the RMT and the TWU and who was sorely missed at this event.

Performing at the event was the Irish string band, the Murphy Beds, and the Niall O’Leary Irish Dance Studio. Local 100 Director of Communications Jim Gannon acted as MC for the evening, introducing President Tony Utano, who in turn introduced John Samuelsen. Enjoy the photos and the music.

AM New York: Elevator Escalator Maintainers Making a Difference

MARCH 8, 2018 -- In a copyrighted story, AM New York showcased the need for more Elevator Escalator Maintainers, noting that competition with the private sector has been putting pressure on the MTA to do more hiring, and that there is still a gap in hiring that needs to be filled. TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano notes that retaining elevator staffing and hiring new workers has been a long term problem, but that Local 100 is making progress in solving the issue. Read the article here.

2.5% Contractual Raise Effective Feb. 16, 2018; Also 5% Increase in the Night-Weekend Differential

Transit workers saw a nice bump in their net earnings in their most recent paycheck (and it wasn’t from the Trump tax cut). It was from an across the board 2.5 percent wage increase, thanks to the collective bargaining agreement between TWU Local 100 and the MTA-New York City Transit, MTA-MABSTOA and MTA Bus.

The increases became effective Feb. 16, 2018.  It is the second wage hike in the 28-month agreement with the MTA, negotiated and ratified in early 2017.

In addition to the wage boost, anyone working shifts covered by night and weekend differential will see a 5% increase in that rate as well.  It’s the first time in more than a decade that the union secured a boost in the differential rate. To see the wage tables with your new rates, click here.

Post Article on Bus Accidents was a Hatchet Job

A group of striking Bus Operators and Maintainers were on the picket line outside a Brooklyn bus depot early one morning in December 2005 when a New York Post delivery truck dropped some bundles of the newspaper outside a still-shuttered store a couple of blocks away. The strikers saw an opportunity.

They didn’t want to read the Post for free. They wanted to torch it for a particularly anti-union series of headlines and editorials the right-wing paper had been publishing.

“We had ourselves a bonfire,” one of the strikers said afterwards. “I wouldn’t read that rag.”

Bus Operators could be forgiven for wanting to put a match to the Post last Sunday (March 4) when it ran an unfair, irresponsible and strikingly shameful example of sensational journalism. “MTA buses were in more than 21k collisions in just 3 years,” the headline stated.

The reporters then described a series of serious accidents and quoted two ambulance-chasing lawyers about the hazards posed by buses – and by extension, by Bus Operators. Their false narrative was that MTA buses are careening down city streets on a wholesale basis, wreaking havoc and causing property damage, serious injuries and death. It’s simply not true. But they downplayed or ignored information that indicated anything different.

TWU Local 100 gave the reporters a statement pointing out that NYC Transit Bus Operators have an excellent safety record, according to federal data. In fact, they have the second-best safety rate among the largest bus operations in the country. Only Seattle did better, according to federal data. The Post reporters chose not to include the union statement. Why? Because it would disprove the entire premise of their story.

“The New York Post should apologize to our dedicated Bus Operators for the stunningly unbalanced article on bus collisions,” Local 100 President Tony Utano said in a Letter to the Editor. “This article was itself a total wreck.” To be honest, The Daily News had some editors that pushed through some unfavorable headlines and coverage during the strike, which I wrote about as the News’ transit reporter. Other staffers at the News like Juan Gonzalez and myself pushed back. We did the best we could to tilt the scales back towards the workers. This isn’t an indictment of an entire industry or even everyone at the Post. But if you are ever tempted to by their Sunday edition, remember this hatchet job and save yourself the $1.50.