The Union issued this press release today, signaling our opposition to a Mayoral plan which would eliminate the bulk of the jobs and livelihood of pedicab drivers in Central Park, most of whom come from Senegal and Sierra Leone. We view this as an unconscionable attack on the working poor and are committing resources to a fightback.
TWU Local 100 – the largest transport workers local in the country – is helping vulnerable pedicab drivers fight for their jobs, Local 100 President John Samuelsen announced Friday.
The union has begun helping the drivers organize and will be providing training, legal advice and other assistance. Pedicab worker representatives were at the Union Hall in Brooklyn today and a large gathering is planned at TWU Local 100 headquarters for Monday.
Mayor de Blasio is pushing a plan that would ban pedicabs from Central Park below 86th St. where all the business is located.
The plan also would shrink the number of the popular horse-drawn carriages, and have the carriage industry vacate now-valuable real estate on the West Side where the horses are now stabled.
“No credible person believes this is about animal welfare at this point,” Samuelsen said. “Obviously, there’s more than meets the eye at play. These vulnerable workers are being thrown under the bus in a way that is the opposite of progressive. It’s anti-worker, anti-immigrant, and these workers shouldn’t have their livelihoods ripped away from them just so the mayor can reward his campaign donors.
"This fugazy deal stinks to high heaven. These workers now have a voice and the backing of the 42,000-strong TWU Local 100.”
TWU International President Harry Lombardo swore in the newly elected members of Local 100’s Executive Board Thursday morning – and called for-post election unity. Local 100 President John Samuelsen echoed those sentiments, and said that he would do everything within his power to make Local 100 a more united union. “We had a hard-fought election, no doubt about it,” Samuelsen said. “That’s to be expected. This is Local 100. It’s not kindergarten. It’s not a tea party. Everyone here in this room has earned the respect of the members and it’s my intention to honor that respect. I’m looking for a fresh start and I hope everyone in this room is looking for a fresh start.”
Local 100 is arranging for “nuts and bolts” training for newly elected officers to better prepare them to handle contract-enforcement issues, workers compensation cases and other responsibilities, Samuelsen said.
The challenges facing Local 100 include negotiating a new contract for MTA bus and subway workers. The current contract expires in January 2017.
Local 100 will launch a fight for the state Legislature to enact pension reform and rollback the higher contributions imposed on Tier Six workers.
All public-sector unions, meanwhile, face the very real possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court this year will hand down a decision making it more difficult for unions to collect dues or agency fees. The Executive Committee held a strategy meeting Wednesday, and a sweeping plan of action focusing on internal organizing and officer training is being developed, Samuelsen said.
On other fronts, contract negotiations have begun in Westchester with the county and Liberty Lines. The last contract was reached only after very contentious negotiations and the threat of a strike. Local 100 will be ready to take such militant action if necessary, he said.
“If you fight back, you may not win every time,” Samuelsen said. “But if you don’t fight back, you will lose every time.”
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.
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, 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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
