Click on the images to hear TWU Local 100’s new radio campaign pushing for a fair contract.

The numbers are nothing short of staggering. We - transit workers represented by TWU Local 100 - operate and maintain 469 subway stations, 840 miles of track, more than 5,700 buses and more than 6,400 subway cars. On an average weekday, we provide subway and bus riders with 7,746,000 million trips.

The city that never sleeps also never stops. That’s because we staff the bus and subway system 24 hours a day, including the dead of night when most New Yorkers are asleep. We punch the clock on weekends and holidays, spending time away from our families so riders can see theirs. We are Bus Operators and Train Operators, Trackworkers and Station Cleaners, Bus Mechanics and Train Mechanics, Conductors and Construction Workers - and much, much more. We are on the front lines moving more than 6 million subway riders and 2 million bus riders a day. We are out there repairing tracks on elevated subway lines in the scorching heat and navigating 40-foot buses through blinding snowstorms. We inspect rails in pitch-black subway tunnels as trains roar by and hoist garbage bags onto work trains in quiet stations before the sun is up.

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We demand a fair wage increase for NYC Transit Workers!

New York City transit has rightly been called by the Governor and the City Comptroller the engine that drives our state’s economy. Without a vital and growing mass transit system, there is no economic vitality in New York . The MTA is in the midst of our largest capital budget outlay in history, with $27 billion in new funding. Trains and buses bring over 8.5 million New Yorkers and visitors around this town each day, and the sisters and brothers of TWU Local 100 move them. We move New York City – and we demand recognition and respect. Read our contract demands here.

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On November 15, over seven thousand TWU Local 100 transit workers took our contract demands to the street in front of MTA headquarters at 2 Broadway, projecting our key issues directly onto the facade of the building with the aid of an “illuminator.” The Trackworkers, Station Agents, Bus Operators, Maintainers, Cleaners, Third Rail Maintainers, Tradesmen, Signal Maintainers, and so many others who make this system work so well 24/7 are nearing the end of our current contract. We demanded a successor agreement that recognizes our achievements in restoring service after SuperStorm Sandy in record time, providing world-class service to 50 million tourists in addition to our 8.5 million New Yorkers, and being the eyes and ears on continuous lookout for threats to our transit system.

At the rally, Local 100 President John Samuelsen addressed the large crowd, as members blasted air horns and waved signs from every division in the Union. He was introduced by TWU International President Harry Lombardo. Secretary-Treasurer Earl Phillips articulated the dangers we face in his speech, documenting the many fatal accidents to transit workers in the last decade. Recording Secretary LaTonya Crisp-Sauray MC’d the event, introducing all of our Vice Presidents and the other speakers, and leading the huge crowd in chants and song.

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Public Advocate Letitia James roused the crowd with a ringing endorsement of union action in the face of Tuesday’s Republican takeover in Washington.City Comptroller Scott Stringer called transit workers’ contributions to the City “priceless” and said they deserved a good contract  “with no games” from management. Other politicians including newly-elected State Senator Marisol Alcantara, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Manhattan Borough President Gail Brewer, and City Council members Francisco Moya and Elizabeth Crowley addressed transit workers from the stage. Labor support came in the form of strong statements in support by Danny Cassella and Mark Henry, who represent other transit locals in New York, as well as from New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento and New York City Central Labor Council Vincent Alvarez. At the conclusion of the rally, Samuelsen with a delegation of top officers walked into the lobby of 2 Broadway, where MTA officials including Director of Labor Relations Anita Miller were waiting to formally accept the Union’s bargaining demands, kicking off our “contract countdown.”

Click here for photos of the rally.

I’m John Samuelsen, a Trackworker by trade, and President of TWU Local 100, a union that represents 38,000 transit workers employed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Four years ago, this Union waited to secure a contract while the regional and national economy was still recovering from the Great Recession, where concessions and red ink were a part of the bargaining picture everywhere you looked. Today, we’re on an upswing, with a fully funded capital program and robust expectations for our economic future. We call on our leaders and riders to support our just demands for a fair wage increase, and an on-time contract!

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“Ralph Johnson jumped into an incredibly dangerous situation in order to save another’s life,” said John Samuelsen, president of TWU Local 100. “He didn’t wait for someone else to take action. He used his training and got the job done. That’s what transit workers do. He’s a hero and we’re proud to have him as a Local 100 member.”

“Mr. Johnson’s brave actions and quick thinking exemplify the many ways that MTA workers often go above the call of duty to help customers and, sometimes, to save a life,” said Wynton Habersham, acting senior vice president for subways of New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA). “He arrived to work early that day in September to familiarize himself with a new assignment. In doing so, he was on the platform just as a woman, who had fallen onto the tracks, needed help. He put aside his own safety when he jumped down onto the tracks to come to her aid and to stop an oncoming train before it was too late. We are very proud to call Mr. Johnson a member of the NYCTA family.”

Conductor Warren Cox stopped a distraught woman on a subway platform from harming herself and her 9-year-old daughter.

Eyewitness News: Conductor Saves Little Girl

Daily News: Conductor Intervenes, Helps Suicidal Mom

"Saving lives is not in the job description, but that's what transit workers regularly do, sometimes at great risk to their own safety. We're proud of Conductor Cox for intervening until the police arrived.”
- TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen

“When Conductor Cox saw something odd, he stepped in and did something courageous and saved two lives, including that of an innocent child.”
- NYC Transit President Ronnie Hakim.

Signal Maintainer David Martinez performed CPR and saved Signal Helper Monique Brathwaite’s life after she fell and came in contact with the electrified third rail.

CBS: MTA Worker’s CPR Saves Co-Worker

This man had no CPR training. But he saved his co-worker’s life by pumping her chest to ‘Stayin’ Alive.’

“He saved my life. I called him. I thanked him. I told him, 'Thank you. You are my hero.'"

- Injured Signal Helper Monique Brathwaite

Stations Cleaner Darren Johnson chased a man who groped a young mother up 106 steps of a deep-cavern Manhattan subway station and held him for police.

Cleaner Grabs Perp; Puts Out Fire

NY 1: Cleaner Grabs Groper

"I have a daughter and I just felt like, you know, there's no way I can let this guy get away. “He reached into his pocket like he was going to grab something and I said to myself, ‘I’m not going to get stabbed here. I grabbed both his arms and held him.”

- CTA Darren Johnson

Hometown Heroes in Transit

TWU Local 100 joined forces with The New York Daily News in 2012 to create the Hometown Heroes in Transit awards celebrating bus and subway workers who do extraordinary deeds on behalf of their riders, co-workers or communities. Here are some of their stories.

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