Local 100 Secretary Treasurer Earl Phillips delivered a message of support and solidarity from TWU to the Region 10 Public Employees Federation (PEF) Leadership Conference on June 7, 2014.
Region 10 covers thousands of state workers in Manhattan and the Bronx. PEF represents 54,000 employees in 12 regions across New York State.
The conference drew scores of local PEF leaders, executive board members, stewards, and statewide officers including PEF President Susan Kent.
Region 10 Director Jennifer Faucher had requested that Phillips present details on the recently concluded Local 100 contract campaign with the MTA. PEF is preparing to go into negotiations on a new contract with the State of New York.
In his remarks, Phillips outlined the key strategy moves during TWU’s two-plus years of negotiations with the MTA. He discussed the union’s two major public campaigns in 2012 – MTA Can Pay and MTA, Money Thrown Away – that utilized free media to get the union’s message out.
He outlined the union’s paid media campaign in 2013 that used the lessons of Hurricane Sandy to spotlight the importance of transit workers and public transit to the region’s economic wellbeing.
He talked about Local 100’s union-wide organizational effort to build toward a major demonstration on the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2013, to clearly underscore the positive messaging from the paid media campaign. And he outlined how the union had built grass roots political support among community leaders and politicians to pressure the MTA to finally negotiate in good faith.
Phillips complimented PEF leaders on the theme of their contract campaign – Fighting Back With Labor – and he pledged that Local 100 would stand with PEF in their battle for a fair contract.
