Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

New Yorker Ricardo Young crushed to death in Hackensack River tugboat accident

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/12/27/2009-12-27_new_yorker_ricardo_young_crushed_to_death_in_.html

New Yorker Ricardo Young crushed to death in Hackensack River tugboat accident
NEWS WIRE SERVICES
Sunday, December 27th 2009, 5:40 PM

Family of tot who fell off roof gathers for Christmas memorial
Hardhat survives 8-story fall in scaffolding accident

An accident on a northern New Jersey river has claimed the life of a tugboat worker from New York City.
State police say Ricardo Young was fatally crushed early Sunday after he became tangled in some cables.
The 50-year-old Queens man apparently was trying to tighten the connections between the Turecamo Girls tugboat he was on and the vessel it was pulling along the Hackensack River when the accident occurred around 2 a.m.
His body was later taken to a nearby dock in Secaucus.

No Safe Harbor for New York ILA Tugboat Union:Crew cuts mean a tug-of-war for new leaders
http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-11-17/columns/no-safe-harbor-for-new-york-tugboat-union/

No Safe Harbor for New York Tugboat Union
Crew cuts mean a tug-of-war for new leaders
By Tom Robbins
published: November 17, 2009

Stan Shaw

A gusty November wind was churning New York harbor into choppy, white-foamed waves last week as a group of members of the tugboat workers union talked about the dangers of their trade.

They sat in a cramped second-floor conference room at the headquarters of Local 333 of the United Marine Division of the International Longshoremen's Association on Bay Street in Staten Island. A block away, waves were beating against the bulkhead, making their own convincing argument about the potential perils of working the harbor waters.

"A couple of years ago, a deckhand named Larry Bennett was making up the tow between a pair of barges up the Hudson, when he slipped and fell in between," Mike Brandon, a union official, was saying. "He was a real experienced guy, a Vietnam vet. He knew how to work safe. But the barges came together, and he got crushed. They pulled him out and tried to give him CPR, but his chest had just been flattened. There was nothing there."

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS54188+17-Oct-2009+PRN20091017

Teamsters, Labor and Community Supporters Stage Rally for Baumann Bus Workers
Sat Oct 17, 2009 12:15pm EDT
Hundreds Call for Respect for School Bus Workers on Long Island

FARMINGDALE, N.Y., Oct. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teamsters General
President Jim Hoffa pledged his support for the more than 1,700 Long Island
school bus workers who are fighting for respect at Baumann Bus at a rally
today.

The workers, who filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board
on October 5, are organizing with the Teamsters to gain respect, fair and
equal treatment on the job and affordable health care.

"Every single one of you deserves to be respected in the workplace, and I'm
here to tell you that the Teamsters Union is going to be your partner in this
fight," Hoffa said. "We are here to tell the company that it is time recognize
the valuable work their workers do."

Hundreds of Baumann workers rallied for respect with Hoffa and prominent
political and community leaders, including Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY); Rep.
Steve Israel (D, 2nd); Leg. Bill Lindsay (Suffolk County, 8th( )Dist.); Leg.

YouTube - Michael Moore Joins NYC TWU 100 And Other Trade Unionists In March And Rally at New York Stock Exchange
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEvMdjvt6ZU&feature=player_embedded

NYC Tugboat Workers Strike Over Staffing

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/tugboat-workers-strike-over-staffing/

September 3, 2009, 11:14 AM
Tugboat Workers Strike Over Staffing
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
For the first time in nearly two decades, tugboat workers are going on strike.

The strike, which is over staffing levels on boats, is a fairly small one. It is against a small company called Kosnac, which has only about a dozen union employees and two boats.

Even so, the union sees the strike, which started on Monday, as important because of the precedent it sets.

“If the union were to agree to a reduction for manning on this company, every other company is going to ask for the same thing,” said Louie Nikolaidis, the general counsel for Local 333, the Local Marine Division of the International Longshoremen’s Association. “They are asking for concessions on safety that the unions can’t accept.”

According to the union, the company wanted to drop deckhand staffing by one person on the boats, and have the engineers pick up some of the deckhand work. “You can’t do it with two deckhands — it’s suicide,” said William Harrigan, the president of the union. “They are at skeleton crews as it is.” The company’s two boats are run on 24-hour shifts, he said.

NYC TWU 100 Transit union leader Roger Toussaint & Co. suffer a series of defeats
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/06/25/2009-06-25_toussaint__co_facing_a_rail_big_challenge_at_twu.html

Transit union leader Roger Toussaint & Co. suffer a series of defeats
BY PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, June 25th 2009, 4:00 AM

Transit union leader Roger Toussaint, who led the 2005 Christmastime strike that crippled the bus and subway system, has lost his ironclad grip on Transport Workers Union Local 100.
A faction of Toussaint loyalists suffered a series of stunning defeats Monday when ballots for delegates to the international's convention were counted.
The loyalist "United Invincible" faction won dozens of uncontested races - but lost about 40 of 67 of the head-to-head contests against the anti-Toussaint "Take Back Our Union" camp, sources said Tuesday.
That doesn't bode well for Toussaint and his handpicked successor, acting Local 100 President Curtis Tate, who heads the United Invincible slate.
Toussaint stepped down after taking a promotion to the international organization.
Ballots for president, secretary-treasurer and other Local 100 leadership posts were mailed out this month but haven't been counted.

Showdown for the BusFellas' Union - ATU 1181
http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-02-25/columns/showdown-for-the-busfellas-union/

Showdown for the BusFellas' Union
A mobster's old cronies vie to keep control
By Tom Robbins
published: February 25, 2009

Emily Peet-Lukes

School bus union candidate Bisbano: Steering away from the mob

The most blatantly mobbed-up union in the city—one that the great Mafia buster Rudy Giuliani somehow overlooked when he was running City Hall—is holding new elections next month. And while the vote will be decided by the 15,000 members of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, anyone whose child steps onto a city school bus has good reason to be interested in the race.

This is because it is now an undisputed fact that the Genovese crime family was allowed to run this union as a side business for more than 30 years while the city pretended it knew nothing about it. Giuliani roared that mob control of garbage haulers and fish wholesalers was an intolerable threat to public safety and the economy, demanding that every vendor be scrutinized and screened. But kids boarding school buses whose operators and drivers trembled under the Mafia's thumb? His people had nothing to say on the subject.

http://www.lrp-cofi.org/TWU100/trackdiv_election.html

LRP Supporter Wins Transit Union Post

In June, track worker Eric Josephson was elected Vice-Chair of the Track Division in Transport Workers Union Local 100, the powerful union of New York City’s subway and bus workers. Josephson is well-known in the union as a consistent fighter for workers’ interests. He is also widely known for his revolutionary socialist views and his support of the League for the Revolutionary Party and the newsletter it sponsors, Revolutionary Transit Worker.

Josephson’s election campaign literature highlighted immediate demands of struggle for track and all transit workers such as the fight for safe working conditions, preparations for the upcoming contract struggle and for democracy in the union. It also prominently championed revolutionary socialism as the alternative to increasing misery under capitalism and raised a perspective of union action over a range of issues from racist police brutality and anti-immigrant attacks to the imperialist occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Josephson won election to the same post previously, in 2000, running against both the old-guard bureaucracy and the “New Directions” caucus which at the time had a reputation among the ranks as a militant opposition. This time Josephson did not face competition from other opponents of the incumbent leadership. His electoral victory by a 2-to-1 margin over a supporter of incumbent Local President Roger Toussaint certainly expressed a protest by many against Toussaint’s betrayal of the union’s 2005 strike and his increasingly dictatorial rule over the Local. But it also indicated the support Josephson enjoys as a well-known fighter against the bosses and the willingness of many to back his proposals for action.

The following anti-war resolution was adopted unanimously at the March 27 delegate assembly of the Professional Staff Congress, AFT Local 2334 at the City University of New York.

Whereas, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has voted to stop work and shut down all 29 West Coast ports for the full 8-hour day shift on May 1st, in protest against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan; and

Whereas, this historic decision to use the power of their contract to close the ports represents one of the most powerful forms of labor action a union can take to demand an end to the war; and

Whereas, the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY has, since the start of the war in Iraq, called for an end to the war and a reordering of national priorities so that funding is available for education, healthcare, jobs and other human needs; and

Whereas, it is especially important that CUNY students, faculty and staff have an opportunity to discuss the meaning of a powerful labor action to end the war, given the intense military recruitment our students face and the direct effect of the war budget on CUNY funding and contracts; and

Whereas, the PSC has embarked on the most intense phase of our fight for a fair contract; and

The New York Metro Area local of the American Postal Workers Union will observe a "2-minute period of silence at 1:00 AM, 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM" during all three shifts on May 1st, 2008 - International Workers Day - to show their opposition to the Iraq war and occupation and Bush's threats to attack Iran and Syria.

The resolution, "in support of labor actions to stop the war," passed without opposition at the general membership meeting March 19th. NY Metro is the largest local in the APWU, representing many thousands of clerks and other postal workers in Manhattan, the Bronx and several large mail processing facilities in New Jersey.

The vote by NY Metro is "in solidarity with the actions of our brothers and sisters in the ILWU," which plans to shut down all West Coast ports for 8 hours on May 1st, and with San Francisco Branch 214 letter carriers, who voted to have a 2-minute period of silence (at 8:15 AM) on May Day in all carrier stations, in opposition to the war.

The resolution also urged NY Metro members in all postal facilities to "wear a button, ribbon, badge or some other symbol in protest of the war on May Day." On March 22, NY Metro leaders and members marched with other unionists in the "River to River Against the War" protest on the 5th anniversary of the Iraq war. They marched on 14th Street in both directions, from the East River to the Hudson, meeting up for a rally at Union Square with wounded veterans of the war and military families.