NYC TWU Dissident Alleges Special Treatment Claim TWU Tilts Election

http://www.thechief-leader.com/news/2008/0523/news/007.html

Dissident Alleges Special Treatment
Claim TWU Tilts Election

By ARI PAUL

A candidate in a division election at Transport Workers Union Local 100 has claimed that the union's leadership is unfairly playing favorites by putting his opponent on release time and giving him lists of members in good standing with voting rights.

JOHN CHIARELLO: Local 100 playing favorites.
Line Equipment and Signal Division Recording Secretary John Chiarello is running against New York City Transit Signal Maintainer Shawn Welcome for one of the division's three executive board positions. The board position has been vacant since April 2007, when Richard Conte left the bargaining unit for a management position. Division rep Pete Foley, who is aligned with Mr. Chiarello, is running against Eli Harris, another division rep, for the vice chair position.

More Time to Campaign

But Mr. Chiarello, who was elected on the dissident Rail and Bus slate in December 2006, said that his opponent was put on release time, freeing him from his NYC Transit duties and giving him more time to campaign.

NYC TWU 100 Pres "Actions Are Like That Of A Transit Boss" Charges That "Toussaint of Acting More Like A Manager Than A Union Leader"
http://www.thechief-leader.com/news/2008/0530/news/013.html
Some Grumbling in Ranks
TWU, 'Transit' Combine On Track-Safety Course

By ARI PAUL

Thousands of New York City Transit workers are going through day-long safety stand-downs, many of them led personally by the agency and Transport Workers Union Local 100 presidents, in an effort to increase work safety on the subway tracks.

Local 100 Photo

WORKING TOGETHER: Both Transport Workers Union Local 100 and New York City Transit have heralded the stand-downs as a successful collaborative effort that will change the authority's 'organizational culture.' Track Inspector Thomas Bodai instructs workers on the rule changes.

In May and June, all 7,000 of Local 100's Maintenance of Way members as well as supervisors and workers in the Rapid Transit Operators and Car Equipment have and will attend joint presentations by NYC Transit President Howard H. Roberts and Local 100 leader Roger Toussaint, and work in smaller groups to learn new track-safety rule changes.

2 Deaths Were Catalysts

From: Teresa Gutierrez
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 9:37 AM
Subject: Truck Drivers & May Day

We are excited to report that a truck will be leading the May Day March from Union Square to Foley Square tomorrow.

This is great news to show our solidarity among all workers of all nationalities, documented, undocumented or born in the U.S.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
For Immediate Release:
Transportation Workers Coalition for Change

Contact: Billy Randel, 646-645-6284

New Jersey Port Truckers to Strike Over Fuel and Energy Costs

Workers Will Rally Off the New Jersey Turnpike in Large Work Stoppage.

WHAT: Port truckers will stop work for two days to protest rising fuel and energy costs.

WHY: Rising fuel and energy costs are threatening the ability of port truckers to earn a decent living and support their families as well as negatively impacting communities across the country. NJ port truckers are taking action as part of a national effort of transportation workers including - longshoremen and women, taxi
workers, port and long haul truck drivers, and railway workers - to build rank and file unity.

Dear Friends,

Taxi workers are going out on our third strike! Support the New York Taxi Workers Alliance as we prepare for our upcoming October 22nd 24-hour Strike and 12noon demonstration at TLC Headquarters at 40 Rector St. to protest the GPS tracking, and to demand the right to health care, a retirement pension, and union recognition for all drivers

This is a historic moment in our struggle for justice and equity for 43,000 license holders. We have been organizing without a strike fund, mandatory membership and dues, operational support or collective bargaining which would require the bosses to come to the table and negotiate in good faith. Our strikes have become the building blocks to an independent union. We're looking for volunteers of all types, whether you have lots of time or only a little, whether you can help for months or just one day. Volunteer to hand out fliers, make phone calls to update our members, help us keep our office running smoothly, and more

For more information or to sign-up to volunteer

please contact Kavita Mehra at kavitamehra@gmail.com

You can reach New York Taxi Workers Alliance at 212-627-5248

The Taxi and Limousine Commission has refused to listen to the tens of thousands of strikers of September who sacrificed not only two days hard-earned income, but operating expenses which drivers pay up front to the bosses to lease the taxi and medallion for the shift. Rather than health care, retirement pension, an 8-hour work day or livable income, the Taxi and Limousine Commission would rather require costly equipment to track drivers and force riders to listen to ads on TV monitors in the backseat. The monitors heat up the partition against the driver's back for 12 hours. Drivers will also lose 5% of the fare, including tolls and tips, on every credit card transaction

By JOHN SULLIVAN - New York Times September 6, 2007

The number of available taxis was visibly smaller in New York City today as a group of cabdrivers began a two-day strike, although it was hard to say how many of the city’s 13,000 yellow cabs remained off the road.

The strike organizers, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, proclaimed the action a success at a 10:15 a.m. news conference, saying that 80 percent of cabdrivers had stayed away from work.

But Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a news conference just before 2 p.m. that counts taken by the city showed the vast majority of cabdrivers continued to work despite the strike.

“Over all I think it is fair to say today’s strike is having a limited impact, if at all,” the mayor said.

Because small companies or individual owners operate many of the city’s cabs, an exact count of taxis on the street is difficult, the mayor said. But he said large fleet owners, which represent 30 to 40 percent of the taxis, reported that 75 percent of their cars were on the street today, compared with 93 percent last Wednesday. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Kennedy International Airport, reported that the number of taxis was 14 percent below normal at Kennedy, he said.

By Bennett Baumer - The Indypendent, August 15, 2007

Union reformers, fresh off their May Day electoral victory in taking over International Longshoremen’s

Association (ILA) Local 1588, got important commitments on wages, organizing and safety. The East Coast union held its national convention the last week of July in Hollywood, Florida.

The ILA’s top brass reacted to pressure from the reformers and agreed to support the Longshore Worker’s Coalition’s (LWC) demands for abolishing tiered wages, more money for organizing and improved safety measures. Coalition members of Local 1588 have been active in the push to reform the 42,000-member union.

“The international saw the loss of dues from the lower wage tiers, but we put it forward because [wage tiers] do not help solidarity,” said Local 1588 president and LWC member Anthony Falcicchio. “It was interesting that the international adopted issues the LWC held years ago.”

The tiered-wage system pits newer port workers against veteran workers who earn more and prevents newer workers from getting better raises. As the ship companies flood the ports with cheaper and younger laborers, abolishing the tiered wage system has become a rallying cry for reformers. Union progressives also advocate that the ILA use its resources to organize non-union laborers in the ports since the ILA has lost thousands of members in recent years. Labor Notes reports that the ILA would have $8.6 million available for organizing efforts if they capped salaries of top union officials to $100,000.

http://www.thechief-leader.com/Current/Razzle_Dazzle/ from the [NEW YORK] CHIEF-LEADER:   Editor's Column "Razzle Dazzle" July 27, 2007

Razzle Dazzle Toussaint in the Rough

By RICHARD STEIER

Late last month, when I asked a fellow reporter who covers Transport Workers Union Local 100 his sense of the state of the union, he responded, "They're kind of irrelevant, aren't they?"

For a union as renowned for militancy as Local 100, being considered irrelevant is worse than being reviled, as it was by the tabloids just before and during the three-day transit strike in December 2005. But to the extent that my colleague's characterization was accurate, it was directly traceable to the consequences of that strike.

Local 100 is struggling to collect dues in the wake of the suspension of automatic payroll deductions of member contributions since June 1 as one of the Taylor Law penalties for the illegal walkout.

Members Develop Long Pockets

A week before dues check-off rights were revoked, the union reported that about 16,000 of its 34,000 members had signed up to make payments by alternate methods. Since then, Local 100 spokesmen have balked at providing updated figures. They told this paper's transit reporter, Ari Paul, that there is no reason to supply such data to a newspaper whose coverage of the union they likened to the Post's treatment of Paris Hilton, who like Local 100 President Roger Toussaint attracted an inordinate amount of attention for a brief jail sentence.

By Anthony Ramirez - New York Times, June 29, 2007

The National Park Service said yesterday that it planned to have another company replace the Circle Line, which has provided ferry service to the Statue of Liberty for more than half a century.

The park service, which operates Liberty Island and other national monuments, said it had selected Hornblower Yachts Inc., a California company that provides ferry service to Alcatraz Island, the former federal prison site in San Francisco Bay.

Terry MacRae, a co-founder and the chief executive officer of Hornblower, said by telephone yesterday, “The park service wanted an improved customer experience, they wanted more education and interpretive opportunities for the guests, enhanced protection of the environment” and expanded service to other federal locations, like the Jamaica Bay NationaleRefuge.

from the [NEW YORK] CHIEF-LEADER:

TWU Politics Hampers Safety
To the Editor:

I knew and worked with Track Workers Danny Boggs and Marvin Franklin. Their premature,
utterly unnecessary deaths anger me more than words can express.

From September 1991 through December 2000, I served as an elected vice-chair of Local
100's Track Division Safety Committee, most of that time with sole responsibility for the
night tour. In all that decade, on my tour, when more than half the track work gets done,
there was not one on-track death of a Track Worker.

What's different today?

In the 2002 New York City Transit/Transport Workers' Union contract, the union won
unprecedented safety provisions that drew applause from union safety advocates across the
country. We won the right to refuse unsafe work without penalty, and, in addition, a
system of daily accident reporting by the employer to the union, so that unsafe
conditions could be identified and fixed immediately.

So why, despite stronger contractual safety protection than ever, do we now have more
deaths and near-misses on the tracks, in a shorter period of time than anyone now working
can recall ever happening before?

Disclaimer - This article is being reposted here for informational purposes. It's author doesn't necessarily support the aims of this website and its members.

By Amy Zimmer - Metro New York, May 1, 2007

UPPER WEST SIDE. Following the deaths of two track workers in less than one week, NYC Transit’s temporary suspension of maintenance and construction continues until more than 6,000 workers receive “re-training.” But members of the Transport Workers Union Local 100 yesterday said that wasn’t good enough — and called for radios to help improve their communication with different departments.

“We need more coordination,” Percival Thomas, 52, a track worker for seven years, said at a press conference at union headquarters yesterday after “burying one of our brothers,” Daniel Boggs, 42. Boggs was killed last Tuesday night by a 3 train at the Columbus Circle station, and Marvin Franklin, 55, was killed on Sunday after being struck by a G train at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station. That incident is still under investigation.