Revamped Union Apprenticeship Program Up and Running

TWU Local 100 has re-invigorated our apprenticeship program, designed to give career advancement opportunities to our lowest-paid titles – traffic checker and CTA. In a ribbon cutting at the Apex Technical School on December 5th, President Samuelsen joined top officers, TUF Director Charles Jenkins, and the President of Apex to announce that 20 newly minted students – all union members – are moving up the career ladder.

Selected from a wide pool of applicants, these men and women will be paid their transit salaries as they progress through a six month course at Apex to learn the trades of masonry, carpentry and plumbing. After graduation, they will enter a three-year apprenticeship program within Maintenance of Way, giving them the opportunity to enjoy better earnings and a better life.

The new “Upward Advancement Program” represents a fulfillment of an earlier promise to create an internal career ladder that requires budgeted jobs, for the first time ever. The original program was sidelined by Jay Walder during the MTA financial cuts in 2010, and until now there was not a contractual requirement for permanent budgeted jobs in our apprenticeship program. The next Upward Advancement Program will be selected next year. The application period will announced. For more information please inquire at the Training and Upgrading Fund (TUF) at 718-780-8700.