TWU Members Demanding Respect and Recognition from Retailers

TWU Local 100 leadership and members are demanding respect – and recognition – from retailers like Shoprite, Costco and BJs – that have priority shopping programs for police, firefighters and medical personnel.

The MTA has lost more than 70 employees to the coronavirus, including more than 40 TWU Local 100 members. Transit workers operate and maintain the bus and subway system that enables many “first responders,” and other workers government has deemed essential in this national emergency, to get to their jobs. But Local 100 members have been denied priority access and service at the ShopRite at the Gateway Shopping Center in East New York, Brooklyn; the Costco in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a BJ’s location in Brooklyn and another in Pelham Manor; and other big retail businesses.

“Transit workers deserve the same respect and treatment as police officers, firefighters and hospital workers," Local 100 President Tony Utano told the New York Post, WPIX 11, News12 Brooklyn and other media outlets. "We are getting the essential workers to their jobs. Dozens of transit workers have died. They absolutely should be recognized for all that they are doing and have sacrificed."

Bus Operators Letty Daniels and Jonathan Baldwin out of the Flatbush Depot, Bus Operator Rob Leary out of East New York, and Train Operator Adam Black are among the members who have been pushing back on social and traditional media. Baldwin, also out of Flatbush, has been calling store managers to urge them to include transit workers in priority service programs. At a minimum, participating retailers let police, firefighters and medical personnel they consider first-responders to skip the public line, avoiding hours of waiting outside. Some also offer discounts and relaxed rules regarding the quantity of items shoppers can purchase.