News from TWU Local 100

Daily News Report: Trash Bags Sickening Transit Cleaners

In a copyrighted story on the newspaper's website, Daily News Transit Reporter Dan Rivoli devotes an extensive column to a mysterious effect of thick black trash bags which have been ordered by New York City Transit for use in the subways. The bags have a powerful, noxious odor, and are making many Cleaners represented by TWU Local100 ill. Stations Department VP Derrick Echevarria, Division Chair Joe Bermudez, and other officers have succeeded in getting transit to halt delivery of these bags and impound those that remain on the property. A memo from transit Stations VP John Gaito says that bags which emit strong odors will be removed and replaced. TWU Local 100 has sent samples of the bags out for independent testing as we try to identify the reason why they afflicted workers with nausea. The Daily News story reported on one worker who was so affected by dizziness and nausea that she was unable to work. Read the entire article here.

MTA's Intrusive 'Eye in the Sky'

Bus Operators rightly want to slam the brakes on this Metropolitan Transportation Authority plan. The authority wants to put Operators under total surveillance with video cameras focused exclusively on their driving compartments. Authority functionaries would then review videotape to see if they can catch Bus Operators breaking one of the MTA’s countless rules.

The MTA insists this wholesale invasion of privacy is not up for discussion. “We have the unilateral right to install an additional security camera to capture the bus operator’s compartment as part of our ongoing effort to fulfill our managerial responsibility to provide a safe transportation system for our employees and customers,” a NYC Transit vice president wrote the union in April.

Take a hike.

Better yet, put a surveillance camera over his desk, and in every other executive office and cubicle at 2 Broadway.

Actually, there’s nothing in the union-management contract allowing the MTA to so dramatically alter the terms and conditions of employment on its own, JP Patafio, Local 100 Vice President of TA Surface said. Since the cameras would be used for disciplinary purposes, they can only be installed with the union’s consent after negotiations, according to Patafio, who has filed a complaint with the state Public Employment Relations Board. While the MTA claims it’s interested in safety and security, the vice president’s letter reveals the underlying petty nature of management’s intent. The vice president cited two potential safety violations to justify sticking a camera in every bus operator’s face: the prohibited use of cell phones – and radios!

It’s been more than seven years, meanwhile, since Bus Operator Edwin Thomas was stabbed to death by an ex-con farebeater in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and the MTA still hasn’t outfitted the entire fleet with protective partitions to shield operators from the unruly and unhinged. The MTA is moving at a snail’s pace with new technology and equipment that can prevent accidents, including external bus speakers that broadcast warnings to pedestrians when a bus is turning. It continues to buy buses with flawed mirror designs and mirror placement, creating the deadly “blind spots” concealing the presence of pedestrians in crosswalks. And the authority still hasn’t finished installing cameras where they are really needed. Cameras focused on the public areas of buses – the seats and aisles and doorways – have been valuable tools for police investigating on-board crimes, including assaults against bus operators. But only a fraction of the fleet – 2,440 out of approximately 6,000 – have those anti-crime cameras.

Transit officials are quick to point out in their press releases that bus operators do a great job. The number of collisions per million miles traveled has dropped 46% over the last three decades. If they want to improve on that record, there are plenty of more meaningful projects the MTA can focus on other than this massive invasion of privacy against its own employees.

TWU's 100 Women Step Up for AIDS Walk

MAY 15 – 70 TWU women and family walked through Central Park in an energetic contribution to the fight against AIDS. The event was held under the auspices of 100 Women, a committee of rank and file members and officers which has been formed to promote women’s issues in transit. Emmanuella Mathurin, Exec Assistant to Recording Secretary LaTonya Crisp-Sauray, told a videographer covering the massive event Sunday that the Union wants greater awareness of AIDS and the importance of identifying the disease early and expanding prevention outreach. The TWU’s contingent was a spirited part of the 30,000 strong walk, which raised $4.5 million for the fight against AIDS. Representing MaBSTOA were members and officers including 4th Vice Chair Terrence Harmon. From Private Lines, officers included Orlando Pabon. Also part of the TWU group was Nicole Hecker, Acting Director of the MTA NYCT Child Care Fund, and Will Smith of the Union’s PAC Department. NYCT Buses and Trains, as well as our Westchester School Bus members, were all represented. IB Image

In the Bronx, Labor Power on Display

In the Bronx, Labor Power on Display

President John Samuelsen addressed a room full of prominent labor and political leaders in the Bronx County Building on the Grand Concourse, bringing a message of enduring support for progressive values and the importance of transit jobs to the City's economy.

President John Samuelsen addressed a room full of prominent labor and political leaders in the Bronx County Building on the Grand Concourse, bringing a message of enduring support for progressive values and the importance of transit jobs to the City’s economy. As labor host of Bronx Week, TWU’s contribution was noted by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., who introduced Samuelsen as a featured speaker.

Community Women Highlight Our First Political Power Happy Hour

The best evening in Brooklyn last month for discussion and debate was likely the TWU Political Power Happy Hour, an opportunity to see some of our most distinguished and articulate political women in action. It was a full, free, and frank debate moderated by Local 100 Political Action Director Marvin Holland, where the discussion was so energizing the two hours went by seeming like just a few minutes. Topics discussed included Hillary vs. Bernie, crime and violence in our community, how women can combat “micro-aggressions,” and how a professional woman balances work and family. In May, the TWU presents another exciting forum, “Growing up Transit,” with political leaders who are the children of transit workers.

Our panel included (l-r): Brennan Center for Justice Counsel DeNora Getachew, State Senator Roxanne Persaud (attending, but not on the panel), Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo, Barbara Graves-Poller of the Legal Aid Society, Marvin Holland, and Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman.

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CWA: One Day Longer -- One Day Stronger!

TWU Local 100 Secretary-Treasurer Earl Phillips conveys our support to the CWA strikers who are fighting against Verizon's corporate greed -- their determination to outsource good union jobs and attrit out union members. This is a tough fight for all American workers, Phillips said.

Peña Trial Set for June 9

Peña Trial Set for June 9

After two and a half years, it looks like the family of murdered Bus Operator William Pena will finally see his killer tried by a Manhattan Jury. Criminal Court Judge Gregory Carro said, "I'm certainly not going to wait forever," when defense attorney Laura Miranda asked for another adjournment to July so that an expert she wants can be free to testify.

After two and a half years, it looks like the family of murdered Bus Operator William Pena will finally see his killer tried by a Manhattan jury. Criminal Court Judge Gregory Carro said, “I’m certainly not going to wait forever,” when defense attorney Laura Miranda asked for another adjournment to July so that an expert she wants can be free to testify. Carro seemed to acknowledge the agonizing wait that Willie’s widow, Nancy Rodriguez, and his family – both immediate and in TWU Local 100 – has had to endure. On February 12, 2014, William Pena was killed when a bread truck driven by a drunken Domonic Whilby crashed into his M14 bus on 14th Street at around 5AM.

Carro noted that the Manhattan District Attorney put an offer on the table to Whilby of a sentence of 14 to 24 years on a plea to manslaughter, plus a term of 8 to 24 years on a plea to aggravated vehicular homicide. Both sentences would be served concurrently. Carro called it “a generous offer,” but Whilby’s attorney rejected it. Carro set a trial date for June 9th, and we’re asking all transit brothers and sisters to be there.

Nine Years Later, We Remember Marvin Franklin

Track worker Marvin Franklin, who was fatally struck by a train in Brooklyn nine years ago, was remembered at a memorial held Friday in the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station on the A and C lines.

Franklin, 55, was a selfless veteran track worker who put the needs of his co-workers before his own. He was talented artist who sketched subway riders and subway scenes. And he was a caring, giving man, said Mike Cordero, who worked with Franklin for years. “Mike wasn’t just a fantastic artist,” Cordero, who is now a coordinator of Local 100’s campaign to bring pension parity to new hires, said. “Mike brought food to work every night for the homeless.”

A floral wreath was placed on the station mezzanine for the memorial. The attendees included the Maintenance of Way divisional chairmen: Paul Navarro, Track; John Chiarello, Line Equipment/Signals; Steve Higgins, Power, and Richard Rocco, Structure.

Franklin and co-worker were carrying a dolly across the four parallel tracks inside the station when they hit by a G train on April 29, 2007. Two of the tracks were shut down to train traffic for a construction clean-up project but two of them remained active. Franklin’s co-worker, Jeff Hill, was seriously injured but survived.

Connolly's Legacy Prominent in First NYC Irish Cultural Festival

James Connolly – the Irish rebel and revolutionary labor leader who inspired the founders of TWU Local 100 – will be a significant focus of New York City’s first annual Irish cultural festival.

Cuala NYC is an ambitious and sweeping endeavor with more than two dozen events, ranging from a William Butler Yeats play being performed on a beach in Coney Island, to live music at an Irish pub in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, to poetry readings on an East River ferry boat. Many activities will explore the important role that New York City played in Ireland’s historic 1916 Rising, now in its centennial anniversary. At the same time, the festival will celebrate the indelible mark the Irish left on NYC, festival organizer Susan McKeown said.

"The 1916 Rising would not have happened without New York,” McKeown, a Grammy Award winning Irish Folk singer, said. “CualaNYC is inspired by the historic and cultural connections between the two places and I felt it was especially important to remember James Connolly in our events."

Connolly came to New York City in 1902 and lived in the United States for approximately 8 years, spreading his doctrine of industrial unionism through his writing and speeches at places like the Great Hall of Cooper Union. Workers are strongest when organized by industry and not fragmented into many smaller groups by trade and job title, Connolly stressed. The message resonated with Mike Quill decades later as he organized transit workers and founded the Transport Workers Union in 1934.

Cuala NYC will include “James Connolly’s New York” on May 12^th at Cooper Union, a tribute with performances by New York Irish musicians, writers and storytellers. Bagpiper bands from various unions will perform in Union Square to honor Connolly on May 19, and both celebrities and members of the public will be invited to address the crowd from a soapbox as Connolly so famously did himself.

Connolly – and TWU founder Mike Quill - also will be featured in a historical comic book being produced by The Nerve Centre in Derry, Ireland, for distribution here. Local 100 is contributing towards the production costs.