SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 -- Early this morning, TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen released a letter of congratulations to Union staff involved in the successful organizing drive to represent employees at Global Contact Services' Paratransit operation on Northern Boulevard in Queens. The facility employs 550 call takers and reservation agents who schedule paratransit services for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Here is President Samuelsen's letter:
It is with great satisfaction that I announce Local 100 has been victorious in our drive to represent 550 Paratransit dispatch workers at Global, on Northern Boulevard. The ballots were just tallied and we have prevailed! Global is anti union corporation from the south, and they ran an extremely vigorous anti union campaign . We fought back, organized the workers and defeated Global. We defeated two other unions which were on the ballot as well.
TWU Local 100 members at White Plains Bus have ratified a new, five-year contract by an overwhelming 214-9 margin.
The contract provides for ten wage increases totaling 14.2%. Other provisions include guaranteed hours and a union-run pick for school bus.
Congratulations to our members at White Plains Bus, and to Union officers Gus Moghrabi, Hector Cartagena, Davy Erasmo and Laura McCloughlin, who were instrumental in securing this contract.
[Photo: members at White Plains review the contract before ratifying it.]
As the towers fell 13 years ago, New York City transit mobilized for the evacuation of lower Manhattan, the painstaking search for victims, and the removal of hundreds of tons of broken cement and i-beams. Our subways and buses brought countless New Yorkers swiftly away from the disaster site, and rushed in hundreds of Firefighters and Police Officers who came to render aid. We picked up passengers from Cortlandt St/World Trade Center just as the towers fell. We brought in heavy rigs and began hauling 80,000 pound loads of debris by tractor trailer from the site. We cut steel and put the supercrane into service at the site that usually lifts sections of railroad track. But in the history of those days, transit workers are generally overlooked. The official histories don't record that three thousand TWU Local 100 members worked on the pile, many for weeks. Today, many suffer health effects from their service. TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen was one of those there on a daily basis serving alongside those from most every title in transit. These photos document some our work at Ground Zero as we remember this tragedy 13 years later. Here's how the Local 100 Express covered 9/11 in November of 2001.
Outside New York County Criminal Court, bereaved widow Nancy Pena and attorney Sanford Rubinstein talk to the press about the lack of progress in the prosecution of Domonic Whilby, who killed Nancy’s husband, Bus Operator William Pena, last February. Today in court, Whilby’s attorney Harvey Slovis asked Judge Gregory Carro to release him from the case, on the grounds that he was not being paid. Carro did not immediately grant the request and postponed the case to October 22.
Assemblywoman Shelley Mayer (D-Yonkers) won by a 4-1 margin with the strong backing of TWU Local 100. At right at the 9/9 victory celebration is Admin VP Angel Giboyeaux.
We picked 'em in Kings County. TWU Local 100's Political Action Committee under the direction of Marvin Holland came up with big winners on Primary Night. The New York Times called the election for Rodneyse Bichotte in the 42nd Assembly District shortly after 12 midnight. Rodneyse marched with Local 100 in the West Indian Day Parade and won decisively in a four-way race after losing two years ago. We put a lot of resources into her campaign, determined to win this time around. We also put manpower and literature into the candidacy of Latrice Walker, who was one of seven competing in the 55th Assembly District against a candidate who many thought had a powerful machine. The pundits turned out to be wrong and Latrice took it with 40% of the votes over 22% for Lori Boozer. In Sunset Park and Flatbush, TWU's candidate Jesse Hamilton crushed Rubain Dorancey 2-1. Elsewhere in the City, the news was also good for TWU. A dedicated friend of mass transit, Adriano Espaillat, pulled out a narrow victory in Manhattan over Robert Jackson. Jeffrey Klein cruised to a solid win over Oliver Koppell in Senate District 34. In Westchester, Shelley Mayer, a good friend of Local 100, easily turned aside a challenge from Michael Sweeney, winning 4-1. And at the top of the ticket, our picks for Governor and Lt. Governor -- Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul, won with strong showings. Hats off to our volunteers in the field and our members who got out and voted!
SEPTEMBER 3 -- TWU Local 100 Vice President for Maintenance of Way Tony Utano along with MTA Chief of Subways Joe Leader congratulated the hundreds of workers from all MOW trades who rebuilt the flooded Greenpoint Tube for the G Train after it was devastated by Hurricane Sandy. In a ceremony on the waterfront by Newtown Creek, Utano and Leader touted the accomplishments of our Track, Electrical, RTO, EMD, Infastructure, Third Rail, and Stations crews who made it all possible. In his remarks, Utano spoke of Local 100's ability to get the job done on time and under budget, and with a familiarity with every inch of the tunnel that no outside contractor could match.
With TWU Local 100 Secretary-Treasurer Earl Phillips as an honored guest, union officers and rank and file stepped off from Buffalo Avenue to march down Eastern Parkway in high style. Our procession took nearly a city block, with the TWU float backed up by the union van, an MTA bus, and the TWU International's touring bus. We stepped down the parkway with acclaim from thousands of spectators, meeting up with President Samuelsen and union staff who were cooking up jerk chicken and curry for the rank and file. During the parade, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made a point of stopping at the Local 100 area to shake hands with President Samuelsen to acknowledge the union's endorsement of him and running mate Kathy Hochul in the September 9th Democratic Primary. TWU Local 100 was an official sponsor of the event, and Earl Phillips had a place at the podium at the political breakfast that began the event.
In an opinion piece in the Chief-Leader, TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen ripped the New York Times for its doom-and-gloom coverage of public pension plans such as NYCERS, which more than 25,000 TWU members at the Transit Authority belong to. In an August 3 front-page story, The Times sounds alarm bells about the cost of our pensions, but fails to share an important piece of news: NYCERS and the other 4 NYC public pension funds just had their best year in memory, notching a 17% return on portfolios of stocks, bonds, and alternative investments. The New York Times’s hidden agenda, Samuelsen says, isn’t so hard to figure out. The Times is doing the bidding of Wall Street by implying that union trustees shouldn’t have a voice in the pension funds’ investments. This opposes the legitimate role that unions play in protecting their members and holding companies to ethical standards. Read the opinion piece here.
Mass transit systems in coastal areas will be hard-hit by global warming as sea levels rise and extreme weather increases. In this video, TWU Local 100 Conductor Roxanne Coombs says why she'll be at the People's Climate March on September 21, which takes place just two days before world leaders are scheduled to meet at the United Nations for another attempt to agree on ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Governments aren't doing enough. It's time for people power and Union power to force them to act. For more information, and to join our climate change group, text CLIMATE to 313131. For information about the march, go to the People's Climate March site. Read the union's page on global warming here.
Spirits were high on August 10 as TWU Local 100 members marched up Sixth Avenue as part of the Dominican Day Parade. Front and center with the TWU-ers was Schoolbus Shop Steward Viviana Guzman (in white), who also attended the earlier Dominican Day breakfast in Washington Heights, where TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen was honored with the Community Service Award presented by Dominican political leaders including Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez and State Senator Adriano Espaillat. Both politicians have a strong record of supporting mass transit funding and have joined Local 100 in our campaigns.
