Click on the images to hear TWU Local 100’s new radio campaign pushing for a fair contract.
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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.
We overhaul buses and subway cars, repairing and replacing countless parts big and small in shops and barns across the city, places like
Coney Island, Maspeth and Eastchester.
Our jobs are difficult and dangerous.
We work under live train traffic and around electrified third rails. We are exposed to riders who carry weapons, short tempers and a penchant for violence. When we report to work each day, we don't know for certain we will go home to our loved ones. Many of our NYC Transit colleagues have died over the years in tragic industrial accidents while serving the city we call home.
We do it because it's a job that puts food on the table and pays our electric bills. We do it so we can take our families on a vacation and, hopefully, send our kids to college. We also do it because we are proud to collectively play such a vital role - getting our fellow New Yorkers and visitors from around the world to their destinations efficiently and, most importantly, safely.
New York City functions each day because we are here - seen and unseen -making it all happen.
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.
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.
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
© TWU Local 100