Local 100 President Tony Utano Blasts de Blasio for Ignoring The Wakes and Funerals of Fallen Transit Workers

APRIL 4 -- TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano released the following statement to the press April 4, 2018 denouncing Mayor de Blasio for not attending services for St. Clair Richards Stephens and Stephen Livecchi, who were killed on the job a week apart in late March.  Richards Stephens’ wake and funeral service were held on March 29th and 30th in the Bronx.  Livecchi’s wake and funeral were held on April 2nd and 3rd in Queens.

“Mayor de Blasio should be ashamed of himself. Two transit workers were killed on the job  – and the mayor couldn’t be bothered over the last week to attend either of their wakes or funeral services. He didn’t even send a representative on his behalf. He made no gesture of any kind to recognize that these two hardworking men lost their lives in service to the city of New York. That is just despicable. It’s a slap in the face of every bus and subway worker in the city. We move nearly 8 million New Yorkers in the five boroughs, including hundreds of thousands of NYC public school students and municipal workers, every single day. Without MTA transit workers like St. Clair Richards Stephens and Stephen Livecchi nobody could get to their job, or school, or anywhere else. The city couldn’t function. Transit workers will never forget Mayor de Blasio’s total lack of respect.”
 
Richards Stephens, a 23-year-old  Trackworker from the Bronx, suffered a fatal injury when he fell from an underground ledge in a subway tunnel in Harlem on March 20th.  He started work at NYC Transit just six months earlier.

Livecchi, 59, a Helper at the College Point bus depot in Queens, was struck and killed by a bus in the facility on March 27th. A Queens resident, Livecchi had been on the job for 37 years and was on the verge of retirement.

The Mayor has four representatives on the MTA board.  None of them attended either.  The elected officials and transit executives who did pay their respects included:
New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul; N.Y. State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon; City Council Speaker Corey Johnson; MTA Chairman Joe Lhota; MTA Managing Director Ronnie Hakim; and NYC Transit President Andy Byford. NY1 news ran the story as part of an all afternoon news loop today, April 4, 2018.