Health Care for America Now!

A busload of Local 100 members traveled to Washington on June 25 to join ten thousand other union members for a rally demanding health care reform.Capitol Hill was a rainbow of t-shirted union members – Local 100’s dark blue, CWA’s red, SEIU’s purple, IBEW’s electric green, UFCW’s yellow, AFSCME’s green, along with hundreds of white-coated physicians and other health care workers.The crowd of union members and health-care activists stood in the bright sun to hear members of Congress and union leaders deliver a clear message: “We demand affordable, high-quality health care for all, and we aren’t waiting any longer.” Among those who gave short speeches were Senators Charles Schumer Kirsten Gillibrand and Representatives Charles Rangel and Anthony Weiner, all from New York.Rangel, who is chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, told the enthusiastic crowd: “we have to have a health care system that works for everyone, not just the politically connected, not just the moneyed. Congress must expand health care to the 45 million individuals who still lack coverage. We must do the same for our nation’s children and working population.”After the rally, Local 100 members fanned out to the offices of members of Congress from the New York region, carrying each of them the message that the Union and its members can’t wait for health-care reform. As Stephan Thomas put it while dropping off literature in the office of Rep. Nydia Velasquez, “We have to get real reform in 2009. We simply cannot fix our economy without fixing our broken health-care system.”

Defending Seniority And Pay

Some of the issues that led the Unions charge for an Arbitrators decision Stemed back to the day after Thanksgiving agreement that secured pay and extras for operators who opted to stay for them. But as time moved forward Management in the Department of Buses tried to implement a special schedule for all other holidays.
In as early as May 2009 the Management team for the Department of Buses met with the Union From the OA and TA to discuss the issues of the elimination of the M6 route, due to the reroute of Broadway instituted by Mayor Bloomburge, transfers of operators to fill shortages and making July 3rd a Saturday print.
The Unions position was to save the M6 in which we did through our friends in Albany but the issue of transfers was a all together a different animal because the Department of buses was going to violate seniority to fill their shortages. The Union requested that things be left alone or give us a General Pick The MTA refused.
On June 1,2009 the summer pick was originally scheduled to begin, but 2 issues prevented that from happening.
Management wanted to transfer operators where they needed them and make Friday July 3rd a Saturday print to reduce the cost to the Agency. The TWU Local 100 took the issue before the Arbitrator who ruled that the Authority is not permitted by contract to change weekday pay to Saturday pay but can use the changed print just as long as weekday pay is preserved. Also the issue of transferring was decided in favor of the Union where a mini consolidated pick would be conducted in full seniority order that was to effect about 482 operators This issue turned out to be a win for our Union because we defended the issue of Seniority

Election Results

The results of the TWU Local 100 convention are in, TBOU has taken 8 divisions, while United Invincible has taken 6. So far there are no clear winners regarding the top 4 officers. So far TBOU has taken RTO, Power, Track, Line Equipment Signals of MOW Private Bus Ops, MTA Bus and Stations. United Invincible has taken MaBstoa Division1, MaBstoa division2, MaBstoa maintenance, Structure of MOW, School Bus Para Transit and Car Equipment.

These results are not official. The Local will post the official results on the Locals website at twulocal100.org