Union Launches Media Campaign for Hazard Pay

TWU Local 100 today launched a multi-pronged media campaign to build public and political pressure to secure Covid hazard pay for transit workers.

The union’s push began with one-minute radio spots on 1010 WINS and CBS 880 radio.  The union is planning ads in popular weekly newspapers distributed across the City, as well as digital ads in outlets targeting legislators in the City and Albany.

 

In the radio spot, Local 100 President Tony Utano points to the staggering loss of life to the virus among transit workers.  “More than 100 dedicated transit workers have now perished. Despite the risks to their own personal health and safety, these brave men and women continued to report for duty. They kept this city moving – and fighting.”

The spot ends with Utano calling on the MTA to move on the issue.  “We are doing our part.  Do yours,” he demanded in the announcement.

Utano said of the campaign: “We fully understand that additional pay, or bonuses, can never be commensurate with the risks to life and limb the Coronavirus poses for transit workers and our families.  However, hazard pay would be a recognition in tangible terms that we are facing especially dangerous conditions during the pandemic.