TWU’s International Executive Council Elects Local 100 President John Samuelsen as 10th TWU International President, Replacing Retiring Harry Lombardo

This was the scene at the International Executive Council meeting where Local 100 President John Samuelsen was named the TWU International’s new President. Also in photo, are In’tl Secretary Treasurer Alex Garcia, Admin. VP’s Gary Maslanka and John Bland, and Local 100 and Int’l officers Tony Utano, John Chiarello and James Whalen. Retiring President Harry Lombardo has back to camera.
This was the scene at the International Executive Council meeting where Local 100 President John Samuelsen was named the TWU International’s new President. Also in photo, are In’tl Secretary Treasurer Alex Garcia, Admin. VP’s Gary Maslanka and John Bland, and Local 100 and Int’l officers Tony Utano, John Chiarello and James Whalen. Retiring President Harry Lombardo has back to camera.

Local 100 President John Samuelsen is stepping into a new role as International President of the Transport Workers Union of America.  The TWU International Executive Council voted unanimously to elevate Samuelsen after incumbent President Harry Lombardo, from Philadelphia’s Local 234, announced his retirement, effective immediately. Samuelsen had been serving as the International TWU’s Executive Vice President since his election to that position at the TWU’s 23rd Constitutional Convention in 2013. Samuelsen, 49, becomes TWU’s 10th International President and the youngest to be elected to that position since founder Michael J. Quill in 1937. He will continue in his role as Local 100 President to see through the implementation of the most recently negotiated agreement for the Local’s 37,000 members at MTA-NYCT, MTA-MABSTOA and MTA Bus.

Looking back, he expressed pride in a legacy of the union’s collective accomplishments for the Local 100 membership during his time as President, including working tirelessly to bridge the political divides and stop the infighting that had torn the Local in half for nearly two decades. Samuelsen helped grow Local 100 by nearly 5,000 to 42,000 active members through the development of a top-notch organizing department, and by helping to expand the in-house capital construction forces across Maintenance of Way. Samuelsen aggressively pursued work that was previously done by outside contractors, and successfully fought for proper city and state funding for the MTA Capital plan.  The Local is now the largest in its history.

During his Administration, Samuelsen led two multi- faceted contract campaigns resulting in negotiated agreements with the MTA that outpaced every public sector contract in wages and benefits in the City and State, including for the first time, the uniformed services. Under Samuelsen, Local 100 achieved those goals despite a toxic bargaining atmosphere of fiscal austerity. The contracts brought home numerous breakthroughs for transit workers, including lifetime spousal health care, paid parental leave, major improvements in the MTA Bus pension, consolidation of all MTA Bus depots under one collective bargaining agreement, and reduction of the 8 ½ hour day for MTA Bus maintenance workers to 8 hours with no loss in pay. 

The gains won for transit workers in the Samuelsen presidency also include free LIRR or Metro North commuter passes, a tripling of the bonus pay for articulated Bus Operators, a dramatic expansion of the cash sick-out policy at retirement, a substantial increase in longevity pay, and an agreement to upgrade older parts of the system to provide modern comfort facilities for women transit workers – to be built buy in-house forces.

With Samuelsen as president, Local 100 also battled City Hall by taking on and defeating New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in three highly public battles.  The union fought and beat City Hall over the unjust arrest of non-negligent Bus Operators under the Mayor’s Vision Zero initiative; waged a highly successful campaign to pry more than $2.5 billion in NYC funding for the MTA Capital Plan that directly employs thousands of NYC transit workers, and helped the City’s pedicab and horse carriage industries from being obliterated by de Blasio.” Under Samuelsen's leadership, the union steadily stabilized the School Bus Division and opened a storefront union office in Yonkers to insure proper representation of the Westchester membership.  Every school bus property is now covered by a current collective bargaining agreement, and the union continues to make gains. During his tenure, Local 100 developed and built a sophisticated political program that has delivered impressive wins for our union-endorsed candidates in City, State and Congressional elections, and scored major legislative successes including the Veterans Buy Back and Cleaner Assault Bills. The union has also launched a Tier 6 reform campaign, which is currently underway in Albany.

When he took office in 2010, the Local was near bankruptcy and renting the building once owned at 80 West End Avenue.  Local 100 has now regained financial stability and bought a centrally located state of the art Union Hall in downtown Brooklyn that serves the rank-and-file today and will continue to do so for generations to come.  We are homeless no more. Upon the completion of Samuelsen's obligations at Local 100 and his departure, the Executive Board will select the next President, as per the union's by-laws.