News from TWU Local 100

TWU Mourns Mike Quill -- Fifty Years Ago Today

On January 28, 1966, the mighty heart of the TWU's founder, Mike Quill, stopped beating. An Irish nationalist who was a dispatch rider for the IRA while still in his teens, Quill came to America in 1926, first working a night gate security man for the IRT and then becoming a Clerk or "ticket chopper." On April 12, 1934, fighting back against 12 hour days, six days a week, at 66 cents an hour, Quill and six other men -- Austin Hogan, John Santo, Tom O'Shea, Douglas MacMahon, Harry Sacher, and Maurice Forge, founded the TWU. Today, we remember Quill primarily for his key role in our first citywide transit strike which began on January 1, 1966 and ended the morning of January 13th. Quill, ordered to jail along with other union leaders, suffered a heart attack in jail and then another, fatal attack after his release. But he and his leadership team had won a famous victory for the transit rank and file -- the capstone of many hard-fought battles from the 30's onward.

Among the most moving and powerful tributes to Mike Quill is the eulogy given by his wife, Shirley, at a massive funeral service for Mike that was held in February of that year.

In the photo, Mike Quill is led away to jail by NYPD Detectives at the order of then Mayor John Lindsay after he would not call off the transit strike.

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In Photos: Snowmageddon S'no Big Deal for Union Power

In Photos: Snowmageddon Just A Day's Work for the TWU

Snowmageddon Just A Day's Work for the TWU

New York's biggest blizzard (give or take half an inch) blew in over the weekend and set records -- but New York City Transit was more than up to the challenge. Here's a quick recap of how we kept the buses and trains running. More pix to come on our website, including congratulations from Gov. Cuomo on a job well done.

Nancy Rodriguez: Your Presence at Trial of Willie's Killer Means a Lot

Nancy Rodriguez, widow of slain Bus Operator William Pena, made an impassioned appeal for TWU Local 100 members to show up at the next trial date for Willie's killer on March 3rd. Family attorney Sanford Rubenstein joined her in appealing to the members who came to court today to bring friends and boost the turnout on March 3rd. The case against Domonic Whilby has now gone on for nearly two years without even a plea being rendered. William Pena died on February 12, 2014, when his eastbound M14 bus was t-boned by a truck driven by the drunken Whilby.

A busted union leaves workers floundering

By Pete Donohue 

Until very recently, a friend of mine worked for a Manhattan-based company that didn’t contribute a dime towards its employees’ eventual retirement. It didn’t give across-the-board annual raises to the rank-and-file workforce - but reportedly was paid at least one top executive $1.5 million a year.The company regularly took bigger and bigger chunks out of employees’ paychecks for healthcare - up to $500 a month for an employee with a spouse and kids.

“It got so bad I thought I would walk into work one day wondering if they were going to charge me rent for my desk,” he said.

Welcome to corporate America unfettered by an adequately funded and well-organized union. It’s a purgatory that more workers, including public sector workers, may find themselves in. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected in June to prohibit pubic sector unions from compelling non-members to pay agency fees - even though they benefit from the union’s main activities: negotiating contracts with raises, healthcare benefits and work rules, and defending workers facing discipline or termination.

Most observers believe the five U.S. Supreme Court justices appointed by Republican presidents – Alito, Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas – will form a majority and hand down an anti-union ruling. The case was brought to the Supreme Court by a conservative law firm, the Center for Individual Rights. The four justices appointed by Democratic presidents will likely write dissenting opinions favoring the unions’ position, including Elena Kagan, sister of former transit worker and top Local 100 staffer Marc Kagan, observers believe. (Marc Kagan was a top assistant to former Local 100 President Roger Toussaint before having a falling out with Toussaint in 2002.)

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Citibike bikes on display
Citibike bikes on display

TWU LOCAL 100's Bike Share Expansion In The News

In the web magazine "Next City," reporter Josh Cohen profiles TWU Local 100s growing representation of bike share workers with the newest unit formed in Jersey City, N.J.

Here's the article: 

Around the same time last week that Portland was grabbing bike-share headlines with an announcement that the city had partnered with Nike to launch a system this summer, Jersey City bike-share workers were quietly taking newsworthy action of their own: On Jan. 8, they voted 8-3 to join the Transport Workers Union Local 100. The vote makes them the fifth bike-share program in the U.S. to unionize.

Citi Bike Jersey City launched last September with 350 bikes at 35 stations. Though its management, staff and finances are independent of New York City’s Citi Bike program, memberships are reciprocal, meaning a Jersey City member’s key fob works in NYC and vice versa. Jersey City contracted with Motivate (formerly Alta Bike Share), which provides the bikes, docking stations, mechanics, station re-balancers and other operations staff. The largest bike-share company in the U.S., Motivate also operates systems in New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, Seattle and elsewhere.

“The same company is running it. The equipment is the same. All of those things are integrated. The Jersey City workers are being trained by New York workers. From our perspective it is almost the same set up … so we started organizing right away,” says Nicholas Bedell, TWU Local 100’s director of education.

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"I was half way up the staircase, and I heard someone screaming..."

Station Agent Ralph Johnson, coming in early for his shift at Franklin Avenue as the West Indian Day Parade was getting underway, was heading up to get some jerk chicken when he heard someone screaming that there was a lady on the tracks. Running down to the platform, he saw a huddled figure and jumped onto the track bed. An incoming train was just a few car lengths away. S/A Johnson received a proclamation from Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams for his act of heroism -- which he called "just another day at the MTA." Click for the video of the presentation, along with remarks by newly-elected VP for Stations Derick Echevarria.

Transporters Hockey Team Fights in Championship Game

Transporters Hockey

The Transporters ice hockey team, sponsored by TWU Local 100, made it all the way to the championship game last Sunday in the skating rink at Eisenhower Park on Long Island. Although we did not triumph, all who attended had a great time watching this hardscrabble team take the fight to the Arrows. Enjoy our slides and get ready to support our team next season! Pictured is team member Nick Gallo with LES Officer Sherlock Bender.

Motorman Robert Leake, On the '66 Strike

TWU Local 100 Retiree and former Motorman Robert Leake, 88, was interviewed at the Union's Mass Membership Meeting on December 12th. He describes the tough, but necessary fight under Mike Quill-- and the health benefits that have kept him and so many others alive and in good health.

Pedestrian Menace

BY PETE DONOHUE

JANUARY 11 -- Pedestrians are a menace – to themselves. Not all the time, but more often than you might think. “Dangerous pedestrian choices,” including crossing the street against the signal, are the primary cause in 31% of the city’s pedestrian fatalities, according to a two-year study. Pedestrian actions are a contributing cause in another 16% of pedestrian fatalities, according to the city Department of Transportation study.

In other words, pedestrians have at least some culpability in nearly half - 47% - of the traffic accidents in the city that result in a pedestrian being killed. 

Pedestrian behavior is most problematic in Manhattan where sidewalks and streets are more crowded. It's the primary cause in 43% of pedestrian fatalities in the borough and a contributing cause in another 13% - more than half of the accidents, 56%.  Those statistics, which were tucked inside the Vision Zero Pedestrian Safety Action Plan that Mayor de Blasio’s administration released last year, are striking. Yet, you never hear about them. Some safety crusaders only want to talk about the city not redesigning streets fast enough and cops not cracking down hard enough on drivers. In their eyes, anyone with a set of car keys is a Mad Max maniac.

The DOT gives pedestrian safety talks in public schools and senior centers, according to its website. But I’ve never heard a city official speaking harshly or at length about pedestrians carelessly and recklessly putting themselves in harms' way.  The role of pedestrians certainly hasn’t been given equal weight to other aspects of the problem.  If anything, the city report at times manipulates figures to keep the focus on drivers.

State Sen. Jose Peralta (D-Queens) and Assemblyman Michael DenDekker (D-Queens) dared raised the issue of "distracted walking" during a December press conference two days after a 17-year-old boy was killed crossing Northern Blvd. by a hit-and-run driver. Peralta said the city should create a public awareness campaign about the perils of texting while walking, along the lines of those targeting drivers. Seems reasonable enough.  DenDekker talked about his proposal to issue $25 fines to pedestrians who text in crosswalks. They were overwhelmingly ignored by the media and vilified by one zealous advocacy group’s blog. Peralta and DenDekker “mostly blamed the victims of dangerous driving,” the blog stated.

It’s nonsense, of course. It's a fact that people are constantly darting or sauntering through intersections against the signal, crossing midblock far from the relative safety of a crosswalk, texting with their heads down. We all do it. Only tourists from the Midwest, or from countries with a more obedient populace, seem to wait patiently on the curb. The city’s statistics quantify the dangerousness of our impatience and inattention. It would be reckless to ignore them.

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