News from TWU Local 100

Utano, RTO VP Loegel Blast MTA Chairman Foye

JULY 26 -- TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano and RTO Vice President Eric Loegel are blasting MTA Chairman Pat Foye for again putting transit workers in a negative light. At the MTA board meeting Wednesday, Foye blamed transit workers for a “low level of availability.” In a statement sent to reporters and newspaper editorial pages, President Utano said:

"MTA Chairman Pat Foye should spend less time grandstanding for the press and more time negotiating a contract for the men and women who do all the work around here. I’m offended and angry that he would have the nerve to say transit workers are taking too much time off, suggesting once again that transit workers are ripping off the system. The chairman is either clueless or callous. Maybe both. Either way, the only thing he is succeeding at doing is pissing off the entire workforce. If Foye wants to improve worker availability, he should declare a Zero Tolerance approach to worker assaults and lay out a comprehensive multi-faceted plan, once and for all, to stop the onslaught of spitting, punching and other abuse that comes our way for wearing the MTA uniform. Adding extra cops was a good first step, but more needs to be done. No one can do his or her job from the emergency room.

"If Foye really wants to improve employee availability, he should also tell his managers to stop taking our members out of service for petty or bogus infractions. They put workers out on the street and then complain they aren’t working. You can’t make this stuff up."

RTO V.P. Loegel said: "I firmly reject Chairman Foye’s characterization that our contract gives our members “too much” time off. All workers, regardless of occupation, deserve a healthy work-life balance. We do dirty, dangerous, safety-sensitive jobs and need sufficient time to recover. We have to contend with poor air quality, fumes, biological waste, physical hazards, and rampant assaults. Our work schedules are often grueling with short breaks, missed lunches, and long hours. While discipline is improving, Transit is still quick to give workers days in the street for nonsense. The medical department is also quick to restrict employees from work, for ailments that are otherwise under control. The MTA needs to address the systemic problems impacting the membership. Portraying transit workers as spoiled or lazy is not only insulting and offensive— it’s just plain false."

Utano, on 1010 WINS, Calls on the City to Do More to Protect Transit Workers

TWU Mourns Ursula Levelt, Retired Director of the Local 100 Legal Department

TWU Local 100 sadly reports the passing of long-time in-house attorney and labor activist, Ursula Levelt. She died on July 7, 2019 of cancer in her beloved Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She had moved back there recently to spend her final days in the place of her birth. She was 60 years old. Her husband, Bill, informed the union of her death, saying: “Ursula was dedicated to the labor movement and to TWU Local 100. She remembered the many friends and comrades there that she had worked with and fought for over the many years.”

Ursula Levelt was born in Amsterdam on April 14, 1959. She immigrated to the U.S. and attended The New School in New York, earning a BA in 1997. She then attended CUNY Law School, graduating in 2000. Her first job as an attorney was with the firm headed by Arthur Schwartz in 2001, then General Counsel to Local 100.

According to Schwartz, Ursula skillfully defended Local 100 members in hundreds of disciplinary arbitrations. In 2005, Local 100 established its own Legal Department and Ursula was among the first attorneys hired. She continued to focus on disciplinary arbitrations. She became an expert on Medical Appeals, and fought hard for the rights of Local 100 members with disabilities. She handled many contractual arbitrations on medical issues. In 2011 Ursula became the Legal Director of Local 100, a position she served in until her retirement in 2016. Although she planned to move with her husband to Hawaii, Governor Cuomo offered her an appointment to the Workers Compensation Board as a Commissioner, so she stayed at her home in Newburgh, NY. She resigned from the Board in June after her diagnosis of terminal cancer.

Local 100 President Tony Utano said: “Ursula was a wonderful person and a dedicated fighter for the workers. We are all saddened to learn of her passing. She made TWU a stronger union with her professionalism and dedication. We offer our deepest condolences to her family.”

Arthur Schwartz said of his long-time colleague: “I will always remember Ursula as a person with endless energy, with a smile on her face even in difficult times. She was smart, principled, easy to get along with, and a fierce fighter for what she believed in. And she was a good friend. Her death is a real loss for the Labor Movement and progressive politics.”

Ursula was active throughout her legal career in the National Lawyers Guild, a 6o year old progressive lawyers organization, building its labor law program, and writing columns in various publications. She was also a roving ambassador for CUNY Law School. She is survived by her husband and son.

President Utano (at right) listens as Carlos Barnabel makes a point to W'Chester Exec George Latimer today.

Utano to W'Chester Exec: Do More to Protect Bee-Line Bus Operators

JULY 22 -- TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano urged Westchester County Executive George Latimer to take action and help protect Bee-Line Bus Operators from assaults. “Our members are getting attacked and these attacks seem to be getting worse,” Utano told Latimer during a face-to-face meeting at the county executive’s office in White Plains on Monday, July 22.

Utano suggested county police officers be directed to board and ride buses periodically, particularly on routes that have had multiple incidents of riders abusing Bus Operators. The sight of uniformed police officers in the system will help deter some assaults, Utano said. “People will think twice about assaulting a bus operator if they know the police are paying attention to bus routes and our bus operators’ safety,” Utano said. “They won’t want to get arrested.”

After years of advocacy by Local 100, the MTA and NYPD recently announced they are putting additional officers into the bus and subway network to thwart fare evasion and worker assaults in New York City. Utano was joined by Carlos Barnabel, chairman of TWU Local 100’s Private Operations Division, and Frank McCann, senior organizing director. Utano also stressed to Latimer the importance of getting partitions on more Bee-Line buses to protect Bus Operators.

“That would be a significant improvement,” Utano said. Barnabel described some of the most recent assaults, including a June 12 incident outside the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla. A rider pepper-sprayed a Bus Operator after being told she could only let the rider off at a designated bus stop, not in between stops. Latimer asked Westchester County Operations Director Joan McDonald to explore the possibility of putting county cops on buses. He also asked her to determine how much it would cost to retrofit existing buses with partitions.

The county is replacing its entire fleet with new buses that will come equipped with protective partitions, but that process will take years to complete. The top-level meeting was arranged with the assistance of Sen. Shelly Mayer, who was in attendance, along with Deputy County Executive Kenneth Jenkins.

Stations Division Vice Chair Jose Torres is Laid to Rest

JULY 22 -- A solemn parade of mourners escorted the casket of our Brother Jose Torres from St. Helena's Roman Catholic Church in the Bronx this morning. Stations Vice President Lynwood Whichard was a pallbearer along with other union and family members. Brother Whichard also delivered the eulogy at the 9am service. He will be missed. IB Image

No, Daily News -- Transit Workers Pull Their Weight

President Utano and VP John Chiarello defended transit workers and set the record straight in a Letter to the Editor published in the New York Daily News on 7/20. The TWU Letter was in response to a Daily News editorial that disparaged subway maintenance crews. They wrote:

Brooklyn: The Daily News Editorial Board sometimes doesn’t know what it is talking about. You claimed in a July 15 editorial that subway maintenance workers don’t pull their own weight and are partly responsible for some of the big problems that developed underground (“Grab the third rail”). You also claimed that successful efforts to “get the trains running better by cleaning the drains, and fixing the switches and repairing signals, largely relied on outside contractors.”

That is 100% wrong and an insult to the men and women of Transport Workers Union Local 100.

The News’ own transit reporter reported just one month ago that “decades of mismanagement” led to the horribly clogged drainage system. Management didn’t have a maintenance plan or even a systemwide map of the drainage network. Managers ignored a report on this mismanagement that former MTA Inspector General Barry Kluger issued in 2006.

This is not, as the editorial claimed, an “indictment” of the workforce. We do the work we are assigned to do — and we do it well.

Contractors, meanwhile, were only used under the Subway Action Plan because the MTA didn’t have enough in-house workers, or the right equipment, to tackle the drainage crisis on its own in the relatively quick time frame the plan demanded. There is now a schedule for transit workers to properly maintain the drains.

Contractors, meanwhile, did not fix subway signals or switches under the plan. Con Ed workers and contractors, accompanied by in-house forces, performed an electrical analysis of signal-related equipment. Local 100 members made the repairs.

Tony Utano, President, TWU Local 100 and John V. Chiarello, Vice President of Local 100 Maintenance of Way

Local 100 Members Shine During Blackout

I want to thank the TWU Local 100 membership for again demonstrating professionalism and dedication during an emergency.

The Daily News hit the nail on the head on Sunday. “When the lights went out across the West Side of Manhattan Saturday night, MTA crews went to work,”

You got nearly 3,000 riders who were stuck on trains between stations safely to the nearest platforms even though the signals were out.

You managed crowds at dark stations, kept buses rolling without street and traffic lights, and restored subway service as quickly as possible when signal power was restored.

You probably won’t get many, if any, thanks on the job today but you should know that City Council Speaker Corey Johnson did single you out for praise on Twitter.

I’m proud to be a TWU Local 100 member and your president.

- Tony Utano

Corey Johnson on Twitter

MTA UPDATE: ALL EFFECTED SUBWAY LINES are now able to run with passengers! (except 24th Street/Hudson Yards) Thanks to the great leadership at the MTA and to the women and men of @TWULocal100!

Utano Blasts Latest Media Attacks on Transit Workers

TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano issued the following statement concerning the latest attacks on transit workers by the MTA and the media.

“The media’s open season on transit workers continued today with new attacks in the NY Post and on Fox 5 TV. The latest public abuse came in the form of a regurgitation of a 2018 investigation by the MTA Inspector General. Fox doubled down on the Post report by grandstanding outside Quill depot lamenting ‘an infuriating picture of overtime abuse inside the MTA,’ that, by the way, has nothing to do with rank-and-file transit workers.

"Most of the outrage against transit workers is being fueled by the MTA’s new media-hungry Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny, who continues to foment the ridiculous scenario that all 70,000 MTA workers are getting paid for not working. So be it. We’re used to the MTA assaulting its own workforce.

“This is all a repetitive pattern of smearing transit workers during periods, like now, when TWU is negotiating a new contract.

“I want to assure this membership that nothing will stop us from achieving a fair contract that protects our health benefits, our safety on the job and our financial security. We will continue to stand strong against whatever they throw at us.”

Union Wins First Contract at Trans Express; Vote in Favor 96 to 8

JULY 8 -- Trans Express members, newly represented by TWU Local 100 since November of 2017, have won a first contract with substantial raises for all. The contract ratification was announced by President Tony Utano who credited the dedicated efforts of Frank McCann, Director of Organizing, Division Chair Carlos Bernabel, Organizer Dexter Victory, and union attorneys Edward Kennedy and Jade Morrison. The agreement, which expires in December of 2022, sets wages and other terms for approximately 200 Drivers and Matrons who bring passengers to far-flung properties in New York City and environs, including Pepsico Headquarters, Ikea, Hornblower (the ferry service), Resorts World, and Arch Care. During the struggle leading up to the agreement an arbitrator found that a wrongfully dismissed employee who worked with Local 100 was due back wages of $20,000, attesting to the hard-fought nature of our campaign.

New Spots Praise Transit Workers During Mets, Yanks Home Games

If you tune in on the radio for Mets and Yankees home games, you’ll hear President Tony Utano praising transit for their efforts to get thousands of fans to the games and back home safely. “Where would New York be without its transit workers,” says Utano in the 15-second spots carried pre and post-game and once during the contests.