All News

Contract Implementation Moves Forward

The Contract Implementation Committee, led by Vice President Tony Utano and Secretary-Treasurer Earl Phillips, met with representatives of MTA Labor Relations and the BSC on Thursday, June 5. They report the following progress in putting our new contract terms into effect:

The wage increases will go into effect for the payroll period resulting in paychecks on July 2 for the OA and July 3 for the TA.

Retro payments will be delivered to active members on August 27 for OA and August 28 for TA.

Members will be able to opt to defer up to 80% of the retro money into their 401(k)/457 accounts. Target dates for the process are as follows:
• June 20: BSC mails Retro Election Forms to members
• July 11: deadline for members to return Retro Election Forms
If you have direct deposit, the retro money not deferred will go into your account like any other pay. Inactive members will receive their Retro Check approximately two payroll periods later.

Brother Jenkins is at far right in a white suit.

Local 100's Charles Jenkins Elected to Exec Board of CBTU

Delegates to the 43rd annual International Convention of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) elected TWU Local 100 officer Charles Jenkins, who also heads the New York City Chapter to CBTU, to the body's International Executive Committee. The TWU's delegation to the CBTU convention in Atlanta also included other activists from TWU Locals 100 and 101. The International Union was represented by TWU International Adminstrative Vice President John Bland, who is also a CBTU President in Houston, Texas. TWU members at the CBTU pushed through a resolution supporting mass transit and also gave a workshop on the problem of assaults against transit workers. CBTU is the nation's oldest African-American labor organization. It represents trade unionists from seventy-seven international and national unions with forty two chapters across the country. CBTU struggles to build a national movement for economic, political and social justice for every American.

NYC Bike Share Workers Rally for Union Representation by TWU Local 100

The riding public doesn't just sit on their duffs on subways and buses. Over 100,000 New Yorkers are members of NYC BikeShare, also called Citibike, for its corporate sponsor. They've made 7 million trips in the one year since NYC Bike Share rolled out its docking stations and bikes with blue corporate decals. The program works because of the over 120 men and women who serve as mechanics, drivers, customer service people, and "re-balancers," day in and day out. These workers love Bike Share and want to make it better. Three dozen of them rallied on Memorial Day, the one-year anniversary of the program, to declare they're union ready. They believe that they would be taking a big step towards making NYC Bike Share better by becoming members of NYC's largest transit union, TWU Local 100. Unionization, they believe, would give them what they most want -- a seat at the table and a part in discussions about day-to-day operations. They also want input into such questions as the assignment of overtime, the use of private non-staff contractors within the company, and part-time vs. full-time employment. TWU Local 100 wants NYC Bike Share to succeed, because it's an important part of progressive mass-transit solutions to the problem of how to get around in New York in an environmentally responsible way that also benefits the user through exercise. We welcome NYC Bike Share workers into our Union and say -- if you haven't done so already, sign a union card. Let's see how far we can go together.

A Memorial Day Message from President Samuelsen

Monday May 26, 2014 is Memorial Day, the day set aside each year to commemorate the service and sacrifices of our proud veterans, some of them TWU veterans, who died while on active service to our country.
Many of our work locations from 370 Jay Street to barns, depots and stations have memorials to those who died in World War I and World War II.
Memorial Day is commemorated by various services throughout the country, including the placing flowers and Flags on the graves of deceased Veterans. All over the world the graves of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines will be honored on this occasion, lest we forget their honor and bravery.
We hope that you all enjoy this holiday, but let us never forget those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.

Sons of Italy Fete Int'l President Lombardo

On May 22, the Order Sons of Italy, the largest and oldest Italian-American fraternal organization in the U.S., presented TWU International President Harry Lombardo with its Humanitarian Award. (Photo: President Lombardo & family members)

Congratulations, Harry!

Pres. Samuelsen, in DC with the Rev. Al Sharpton and TWU Int'l President Harry Lombardo

TWU, ATU Join on Capitol Hill to Push Transit Funding

In Washington, the nation's major transit unions came together on a shared agenda of funding for mass transit. The TWU and the ATU were joined by civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton, who called mass transit advocates civil rights advocates. At noon on April 20, hundreds of TWU members marched arm in arm with our brothers and sisters at the ATU to Upper Senate Park in Washington, DC, calling on Congress to fund mass transit.

Those assembled — members of TWU and ATU, riders, public officials, advocates and allies — heard from Sen. Sherrod Brown, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. Marcia Fudge, Rep. Alan Grayson, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, ATU International President Larry Hanley, TWU International President Harry Lombardo and TWU Int'l Executive Vice President John Samuelsen.

TWU leadership and rank and file members, who are in Washington for the Union's 2014 Legislative and COPE Conference, carried the momentum of the march into dozens of meetings with their elected representatives, in a second day of targeted lobbying on Capitol Hill. Read more at the TWU International's coverage of the convention.

TWU/MTA Contract Wins Landslide Ratification Vote, 82 Percent YES!

MAY 19, 2014, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – Transit workers -- members of Transport Workers Union Local 100 employed at NYC Transit and MaBSTOA -- have approved a contract negotiated between the TWU and the MTA in landslide fashion. The percentage voting yes was 82 percent. In all, 12,458 union members voted for, and 2,681 were against.

TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen, who led the union’s negotiating team, said that the contract marked the successful conclusion of a tough fight that lasted more than two years. The union’s last agreement expired on January 15, 2012.

“At a time when few workers see their paychecks growing, with a recovery that fails to take hold for so many, transit workers can hold their heads high by having won raises in every year of the five-year deal, resulting in an immediate 4 percent wage increase, full retroactive pay, and new benefits that reverse the trend of givebacks in health care that are all-too-familiar across our country,” he said.

He noted that the TWU contract broke a bargaining pattern that was set in 2011 and had held New York State workers to three years of zero wage increases and major health care givebacks.

Transit workers at the MTA now will not see any of that pain. Partly responsible, he said, was the universal acknowledgement of the outstanding job the workers did in restoring system-wide service just days after the devastation inflicted on New York by Hurricane Sandy.

“I want to thank the members of TWU Local 100 for recognizing that we achieved an excellent contract in trying times. I also want to thank Governor Cuomo for his intervention, at the union’s request, that resulted in an acceptable contract."

Click Read More to see votes by division

Missing: Aidan Norvez

IB Image

Citi Bike workers to join TWU 100

In a Monday, May 19 article in the New York Daily News, Pete Donohue reveals that more than 50% of Citi Bike staffers have signed authorization cards for TWU Local 100. Citi Bike dispatcher Dolly Winter told Donohue that the growing relationship of cycling to mass transit made Local 100 the union of choice. Plus, “It’s a strong union that seems to have good political connections.”

Read the entire story at http://nydn.us/S8xtbO

Strike Averted at Mile Square

Less than 48 hours before TWU members at Mile Square School Bus were to walk off the job in a long simmering contract dispute, the union and the company reached a tentative settlement that has been unanimously endorsed by the negotiating committee.

On Thursday the Mile Square membership had overwhelming voted to strike on Monday rather than consider the company’s “last and final” offer from earlier in the week.

Company owner, Harry Rodriguez, reached out to Local 100 President John Samuelsen and Administrative Vice President Angel Giboyeaux early this morning (Saturday, May 17, 2014) and asked for new talks.

Giboyeaux quickly assembled the negotiating committee and the two sides met at the union’s satellite office on Saw Mill River Rd. in Yonkers for several hours.

The announcement of a settlement came at noon.

On Friday afternoon, an emergency session of the Local 100 Executive Board convened to authorize the strike. The vote was 38-0 to approve the job action. Details on ratification will be announced early this week.

Photo: Local 100 Administrative VP Angel Giboyeaux shakes hands with Mile Square owner Harry Rodriguez, accompanied by the Mile Square negotiating committee, Division Chair Laura McLoughlin and organizer Frank McCann, Jr. Not pictured: Executive Board member Hector Cartagena, Union Rep Gus Moghrabi, and staffer Dylan Valle.