News from TWU Local 100

How About, "Best on the Planet!"

Forget about “We Move New York.” How about, “TWU. The best on the planet.” That’s what Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday morning at the culmination of a rousing speech at the New York City Transit Museum.

Cuomo came to the Brooklyn museum with MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast to announce plans to bring the subway and bus system into the 21^st Century with modern technology, including Wi-Fi on every bus and USB charging ports on hundreds subway cars. Thirty subway stations will be rebuilt under the plan, which Cuomo said was part of his statewide infrastructure efforts that include building a new Tappan Zee Bridge, expanding the Jacob Javits Center and building a new Penn Station.

“We are New Yorkers,” Cuomo said. “We don’t take no for an answer. The New York workforce is the best on the planet. TWU is the best on the planet. We’re going to rebuild New York better than ever before.”

Pres. Samuelsen with the Governor as photographers jostled for position

TWU Supporting Governor's Penn Station Overhaul

As Governor Cuomo prepared to unveil a new $3 billion plan to transform Penn Station into a state-of-the-art transportation hub, Local 100 President John Samuelsen was among the labor leaders invited to attend. We also sent a contingent of transit workers, taking their place with building trades members to show unified support for this key element of economic development for New York State.

The Governor's plan is flexible, but would include linking the Farley Post Office with Penn Station to create additional capacity for transit and a new, bright, illuminated look for the transit hub. In a statement to the media, President Samuelsen said: “It was an honor to stand with Gov. Cuomo today to show our wholehearted support for his vision for the new Empire State Station on the site of the current Penn Station. A modern, well funded transportation network is vital to our City’s economic development and societal mobility. The positive, cascading economic effects of the new Empire State Station will be tremendous. Every dollar invested in public transit pays massive dividends for society. A new Empire State Station will bring up real estate values, expand the economy, put more money into the city’s coffers and more money in working families’ pockets. Gov. Cuomo’s initiative shows real leadership. It’s good for the economy. It’s good for transit workers. And it’s good for all New Yorkers."

President Samuelsen and Local 100 members posed for a group shot immediately after the press conference and roll-out of the transportation plan. IB Image

Retired Car Inspector Bill Quinn: "That Strike Made Us"

In the second installment of our Voices of the 1966 Strike series, retired Car Inspector Bill Quinn, interviewed at our December membership meeting, shares his recollections of Mike Quill and the TWU's first citywide strike.

TWU Hockey Team Advances to Championship Game

Out of nine other teams in our division, the TWU Local 100 Hockey Team -- the Transporters -- made it to the top again! We have clinched a berth in the championship game, to be held this coming Sunday, January 10th, at 9 PM. Let's rally 'round the Transporters at Twin Rinks Ice Center in Eisenhower Park on Long Island, which is at 200 Merrick Avenue in East Meadow, NY.

Find the team on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/pages/Local-100-Ice-Hockey/1549122235351401

The Voices of the 1966 Strike: Part One of a Series of Videos

Retired Kingsbridge Bus Operator James Robertson recalls the day Mike Quill ripped up a court injunction and pulled the trigger on the TWU’s first citywide strike. Brother Robertson came to our December membership meeting with other 1966 strike veterans. This is the first of a series of videos in which we capture the memories of our “greatest generation.”

Assaults No Laughing Matter

Train Conductor Deborah Thompson was in complete shock. “Did you really hit me?” she said to a grinning 15-year-old boy standing on the platform of the Livonia Ave. station in East New York. “Yeah,” the kid responded. “So what? You’re not going to do s---.”

The remorseless punk was talking to a solitary conductor on the L Canarsie-to-Chelsea line. But he could have been talking to society at large, including members of law enforcement. He was confident that he could attack a transit worker and not face serious consequences.

There’s good reason for such brazenness. All too often, district attorneys in the five boroughs don’t prosecute transit abusers for felony assault - even though there’s a get-tough “transit worker assault” law that says they should. Instead, they let assailants off with misdemeanors and violations, ostensibly because the injuries aren’t severe enough for a felony. Thankfully, however, our little genius may be wrong about his fate.

The NYC Law Department, which handles criminal cases involving kids too young to be charged as adults, prosecuted the 15-year-old on a felony assault charge. He was found guilty in Family Court in December and could be sentenced to a juvenile detention center in late January. If the NYC Law Department can legally take this route so can the district attorney’s who prosecute adults in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island criminal courts.

Thompson was observing the platform on Feb. 25^th when the 15-year-old quickly approached her window. “He ran up on me,” she said. “He jumped up with his hand in the air and brought it down on the center of my head like a tomahawk. Then he turned to the side, repositioned himself with a hop and punched me on the left side of my face.” Another teen then slapped Thompson. “They stood there laughing at me like it was comedy night,” she said. She suffered headaches, bruising and severe jaw pain that made it difficult to eat or drink for more than a month.

“I was so disappointed,” she said. “I never had any words or any negative interaction with these children at all. What makes you think you can attack an adult just doing her job?” While she healed, NYPD Transit Bureau detectives investigated. Thanks in part to images captured by subway surveillance camera, they managed to identify the 15-year old attacker. Hopefully, the judge presiding over the case will impose a significant punishment, send a message that transit lives matter and ensure that this kid doesn’t get the last laugh.

Tribute Video Honors Quill, 1966 Strike

TWU Local 100 honored founder Mike Quill and the groundbreaking 1966 strike, which shattered the consensus at the time that public employees could not strike. Using recently discovered archival audio from radio station WINS as well as from the moving memorial for Mike Quill which took place at the Manhattan Center in February of 1966, we re-created the tense atmosphere around the 1966 strike, called by Quill on New Year's Day just hours before John V. Lindsay was inaugurated as Mayor of the City of New York. We include the iconic audio of Quill telling the judge who enjoined the strike to "drop dead in his black robes." We follow the recap of the strike with a portrait of Mike Quill as described by mourners at his funeral service. Enjoy the video -- this is one for the ages.

Waterway Driver Jose Villarroel casts his ballot on Dec 16th.

Membership Approves 5-year Contract at NY Waterway

TWU Local 100 members at NY Waterway, the ferry service that links NYC to New Jersey and the Hudson Valley, voted 52 to 5 to approve a new contract on December 16th. The ratification vote, administered by the Local 100 Elections Committee, was conducted by secret ballot in a walk-in tally at the Waterway building at Pier 79 on the West Side. TWU Local 100 represents Bus Drivers and Cleaners at the company. The agreement sets the hiring rate for new employees at $15.75 and provides raises for all employees in every year of the agreement. It grants retroactive raises of $1 per hour going back to July 1, 2015, as well as retroactive reimbursements for health care and vision expenses. It provides for additional personal days based on longevity at 10 and 15 year steps.The contract term runs from last July through June 30, 2020.

Undercover Officer Mirjan Lolja after assaulting NYCT Conductor

Judge Won't Accept Plea Deal in Conductor Assault

DECEMBER 17 -- A Bronx judge rejected a plea deal Thursday that would have let a police officer who beat up an on-duty female transit worker get off scot-free. Prosecutors recently offered Mirjan Lolja a deal requiring that he only attend anger management classes and stay away from his victim for two years. He was expected to plead guilty to aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor, but Justice Carol Sharpe rejected the proposed deal. Sharpe set a trial date of Feb. 8.

"We applaud Bronx Supreme Court Justice Sharpe for rejecting an extremely lenient and inappropriate plea offer," TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen said. "This was an outrageous, unprovoked and violent attack on a transit worker who was simply doing her job. Riders have to know that abusing public servants will not be tolerated and will bring about serious consequences." Watch President Samuelsen's interview on NY1 on this case here.

Sharpe didn’t explain her decision but court system spokesman David Bookstaver said, “I believe the decision speaks for itself.” Lolja was charged with misdemeanor assault, harassment and official misconduct for jumping on the conductor’s back, knocking her to the concrete platform and forcefully yanking her hair. He then fled the scene like a common criminal. Lolja was heading home from a nightclub at about 2:30 a.m. on Dec. 23, 2014, when the incident occurred at the E. Tremont/Grand Concourse subway station. He apparently was angered and frustrated by a late-night service change and related delays. The conductor was stationed on the platform to assist riders with directions when she was subjected to his abuse. Another conductor on the platform witnessed the attack and came to her aid.

Hoping to solve the crime, the NYPD CrimeStoppers released a surveillance photo of the perpetrator and asked for the public to help make identification. Only after fellow cops starting telling Lolja he looked just like the perpetrator did he turn himself in. Any punishment meted out to Lolja has to include his dismissal from the police force, Kia Phua, the newly elected union vice president for RTO, said. “He acted like a criminal. He ran like a criminal and should be treated like a criminal. He doesn’t deserve a NYPD badge and certainly should not have a gun.” In the last year, transit workers were criminally assaulted 89 times. They were harassed – kicked, shoved, threatened and spat upon – more than 2,000 times, according to MTA statistics.

Transit Assaults: Better Strategies Needed

BY PETE DONOHUE

Abuse of transit workers is rampant – and rising.

In the 12-month period ending Oct. 31, bus and subway workers reported being harassed by riders 2,176 times, according to police statistics provided by the MTA. That’s an 11% increase from the previous 12-month period. Harassment is a misdemeanor that encompasses such punkish behavior as threatening, shoving, kicking and spitting on someone. More serious misdemeanor and felony assaults also increased in the subway - but they declined on buses.

So what’s going on? Just like the attacks themselves, it’s hard to say with certainty. How do you explain a rider becoming so irate about being asked to pay the fare that he or she spits on a Bus Operator? How do you explain a rider, like off-duty police officer Mirjan Lolja, who tackled and throttled a female conductor doing platform duty in December 2014, apparently because he was frustrated about service delays and didn’t like how she answered his questions? In response to such brutish behavior, authorities over the last 15 years cobbled together a patchwork of strategies aimed at safeguarding transit workers. Some seem to be successful while others aren’t living up to their billing.

Bus partitions are the bright spot. There are now more than 4,000 buses with see-through partitions shielding Operators from the loons riding among us. Felony and misdemeanor attacks against Bus Operators dropped from 109 in the year ending in October 2014 to 83 in the year ending October 2015.

The legal system is baffling at best. Anyone who assaults a transit worker, theoretically, faces up to 7 years in state prison on a felony second-degree assault charge. That elevated punishment for injuring a transit worker was established by a state law that was passed with much fanfare in 2002. But few offenders get arrested, convicted and sentenced to state prison on that charge. Lolja, for example, was charged with a misdemeanor, a low-level crime. (He is due back in Bronx court Thursday, Dec. 17.)

Finally, there’s a program that called TransitWatch that could be dubbed TransitFlop. The program offers up to $2,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest and indictment of a rider who assaults a transit worker. Since its launch more than three years ago, only one reward has been paid, an MTA official said. The best move right now would be for the MTA, or even Gov. Cuomo, to appoint a task force with members of substance who can get things done, not retired fuddy-duddies who are now consultants.

The task force should sort out why harassments are up; identify what strategies that were enacted to safeguard transit workers in NYC are working and which ones aren’t. It also should look at how crimes against transit workers are being classified, charged and prosecuted by the police and district attorneys, and if the law needs to be changed again. Then the task force needs to draft a concrete plan of action. Being subjected to approximately 2,200 incidents of harassment and assaults a year – more than 6 incidents of abuse a day on average – simply isn’t acceptable for any workforce, especially one serving the public.