Union Partners with Riders Alliance to Seek $300M Boost to MTA Budget

FEBRUARY 22 -- Standing outside Grand Central Station with a coalition that included the Riders Alliance, Transportation Alternatives, and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, TWU Local 100 President Richard Davis condemned the MTA's recent move to cut morning service on seven subway lines beginning in June. "We will not stand for service cuts -- and how can we get to a six-minute headway if they're going to cut service?," he said. "How are they going to fix the Second Avenue subway with service cuts? That will never happen."

He said that Local 100 has joined the Riders Alliance in their campaign to add $300 million to the Governor's budget allocation for the MTA to fund more frequent service -- a six-minute headway on bus and subway lines.

Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens) said, "We are here together with the TWU and the Riders Alliance to state that we are going to transform the MTA into the transit system that we deserve, and we are going to do that by making sure we leave the days of service cuts or service adjustments behind." He said New York State should get the extra money by taxing the wealthiest New Yorkers. "TWU workers have risked their lives -- more than 100 have lost their lives -- keeping the City alive," he said. He added that the new contract being negotiated between Local 100 and the MTA must include significant wage increases as a result. He and other legislators are proposing a package of bills known which are online at www.fixthemta.org.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams also threw his support behind the measure, telling the crowd: "Transit is probably our State's largest social service program, yet we're not funding it adequately... people get aggravated and they take it out on the union members, because they have no one else to take it out on. So if you want public safety, you can have our trains running on time. Six minutes is the way to do that, not cutting service is the way to do that."

For more coverage of the rally: here's the WPIX-TV report.

Here's a link to the full AMNY story.