Mass Membership Powers Up TWU for 2016 Fights
Speaking to a crowd of TWU Local 100 members in the same hall where our “greatest generation” voted to shut down the City fifty years ago, TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen laid out a new course for 2016, focusing on “money in the pockets of transit workers.” To an audience salted with dozens of veterans of the 1966 strike under Mike Quill, Samuelsen and TWU International President Harry Lombardo sounded the themes of TWU militancy and the strength of the union family. Samuelsen welcomed the newly organized members who have swelled our ranks to upwards of 42,000 and promised a no-holds-barred fight to better the working conditions of our call agents at GCS/Access-a-Ride. He recapped the contract fight of 2012-2014 and urged members to prepare themselves for a new campaign once the holidays are over. He also acknowledged the veterans of the TWU’s other big citywide strikes, in 1980 and 2005. More Mass Membership 2015 coverage will be featured in the next Transport Workers Bulletin.