10 Reasons to Vote No on Utano, Cuomo and MTA Management's Proposed Contract

1.    Each Year, a Real Cut in Our Wages

  Every Local 100 member should know Utano & Co. are lying when they say their proposed contract will raise our wages above inflation. The truth is that unless we vote No and fight for a better deal, this proposed contract means a real cut in our take home pay.

  We all know from our experience of daily life that the cost of living is rising faster than what the rigged official figures say. Heck, the average cost of auto insurance in New York City increased 24% this year!* And as for the most basic expenses, Con Edison, for example, just announced that they’re raising the price of gas and electricity by 7.7% and 4% respectively this January, with even bigger hikes in the following years, and you can bet businesses will pass those increased expenses onto consumers.**

  This contract gives some Departments special wage increases and other sweeteners to divide and conquer Local 100 members. We must reject this, stay united and vote NO!

* ‘Car Insurance Rates by State 2019,’ Insure.com, www.insure.com/car-insurance/car-insurance-rates.html.

** ‘Con Ed on verge of three-year rate hike,’ NY Daily News, Dec. 9, www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-con-edison-rate-hike-20191209-digfaf6fhffazioypz4tf2xlqq-story.html.

2.    Major Health Care Givebacks including a new $100 Emergency Room Co-Pay and big increases in prescription drug co-pays!

3.    The Stations Department Agreement opens the door to layoffs of Station Agents and invites unsafe work and speed-up for all members!

  Station Agents are the members facing the most dire threat of layoff and they are the ones that this contract does not protect with a No-Layoff clause. And the contract’s approval of the continued use of private contractors’ non-union labor in the deep cleaning of Stations sets up Local 100 cleaners to be pressured to accept unsafe conditions and harder work than ever before.

4.  The LIRR “Me Too Clause” is an empty lie!

We all know that LIRR workers earn much more than MTA workers for doing the same, if not easier, work. This contract does nothing to close that gap. The leadership’s Vote Yes propaganda claims they won a real “Me Too clause” that would see our wages rise at the same rate as LIRR workers if they win a better deal. But in reality the contract only states that “this Agreement shall reopen” if that’s the case – there’s no guarantee, and the MTA has no intention of giving LIRR workers a better deal anyway.

5.    The “Group Employee Availability Initiative”

  The proposed contract states that “the parties anticipate that at least a one and a half day improvement in Employee Availability will be achieved. For each additional improvement above one day in Overall Employee Availability the union and the MTA will share equally in the savings as they shall each determine.” This gives the union leadership a direct financial incentive to encourage union members to work as many days as possible, even if sick or injured, to help the MTA bosses!

  A competent union leadership would tell the MTA that if they are concerned about Employee Availability they should agree to contract terms that guarantee safer working conditions with guaranteed breaks and better healthcare, and they should end the “Plantation Justice” Labor Relations system that unfairly punishes transit workers.

6.    Health and Safety

  The entire section on Health and Safety says: “Local 100 will be notified, in advance, of the introduction of all chemicals and or tools before these items are used.” That means there are no guarantees that the union will be able to approve or reject the introduction of new and possibly dangerous chemicals or tools. This, in the wake of the discovery that a Bus Depot in East New York was contaminated with cancer-causing asbestos for decades! This, from union leaders who allowed the work of Cleaners to be outsourced to private non-union contractors using dangerous chemicals and methods that have never been used before in the history of NYC transit!

  We shouldn’t be surprised that this is the level of “commitment” to safety from union leaders who have long been in bed with Management. Remember, for example, that President Utano and MOW VP John Chiarello refused to lift a finger to force Management to remove loose rail and other debris from elevated track throughout the system that later fell and nearly killed pedestrians in a number of incidents. Utano and Chiarello also refused for months to take any action to force Management to repair broken and warped catwalk areas that could have killed union members. They even admitted they refused to do anything out of spite because Local 100 Fightback publicized these conditions instead of begging them privately for action!

7.   The empty words of a “Labor-Management Committee to discuss potential set-aside work for pregnant women and disabled workers.”

  We need contractual guarantees providing members who are pregnant or disabled with safe work positions. It’s not complicated. The MTA is in violation of any standard of “reasonable accommodation” for these members. They have been sued successfully in court and the union is currently suing them over this exact issue. How could Utano & Co. bring us another contract that fails to solve this? Not to mention the gross corruption that is going unaddressed where MTA Management has for decades violated NYS Civil service law by hiring people by resumé. Similarly unchecked will be MTA Managers’ rewarding friends, family members and sexual partners with light duty assignments while forcing injured workers into unemployment by claiming no light duty assignments were available in their title.

8.    New York Paid Family Leave

  The proposed contract states that “As soon as practicable … members will be eligible for NYS Paid Family Leave. Employers to deduct statutory amounts from wages (as capped by law). Parties to form Joint Labor Management Committee to discuss issues related to interplay between NYS Paid Family Leave and contractual entitlements/FMLA, which will precede implementation.” But the union isn’t explaining how much members could see deducted from their paychecks, and the contract offers no protections from management pushing to take away existing benefits. Members will be denied the democratic right to vote on those specifics and are expected to trust what the Local 100 leadership agrees to.

9.    Car Equipment Productivity Committee

  This is Management-speak for more work for the same or less money. More job duties added to job titles with no increase in pay. And more work done by fewer workers always leads to job cuts!

10.  What Gains for RTO?

  The two most important “gains” that our RTO leadership is saying they won are subject to further negotiations or are the subject of some Committee that hasn't even been created yet:

• The RTO cellphone policy language patterned on the policy in Busses is not written yet and is subject to further meetings;
• The RTO Disciplinary changes they are bragging about are also subject to further negotiations.

  This is not how you negotiate contract language. Everything has to be spelled out in detail or we can’t hold Management to anything! Are we really supposed to trust our union officers that they will get the language right? And as with all of these side agreements and negotiations with Management, if this Contract passes RTO members will not get a vote on what they come up with.

  Then there’s the agreement to create a “Standing Grievance and Discipline Committee,” with 2 union and 2 management appointees, “to address areas of concern regarding the Grievance and Discipline process.” “Any changes with regard to Contractual procedures will require mutual agreement in writing in order to be effective” This means that management will be able to veto any changes and 4 people will decide what they think are fair changes to the Discipline and Grievance process for nearly 40,000 transit workers. We will not have a chance to vote on any of these changes until the next contract. This denies us some of our most basic rights as union members.

What’s at Stake in this Contract Vote?

  The Utano leadership showed throughout these contract negotiations they want union members kept on the sidelines,  passively accepting whatever deals they make with the MTA bosses and Governor Cuomo behind our backs. They have done everything possible to silence the membership and even had to be dragged kicking and screaming by the members into calling a single contract rally that they tried for avoid for 5½ months.

  Utano & Co. did nothing during that time to encourage members to take action to enforce their contractual rights and shut down unsafe work. Members who did organize to do that were abandoned by their elected RTO leaders under orders from Tony Utano! When members in multiple departments banded together to organize a transit worker unity rally at 2 Broadway and take on the MTA Board directly, their union leadership called them “unelected troublemakers” and encouraged workers not to attend.

  A Yes vote will mean real cuts in our wages, hikes in our health insurance costs, job cuts and more unsafe work. What’s more, Utano & Co. will claim that a Yes vote shows support for their undemocratic, sellout leadership and its continued collaboration with Cuomo and MTA management's attacks on our union and every other working-class person in this city.

Vote NO on Utano, Cuomo, and MTA Management’s Wage-Cutting, Giveback Contract! And let’s continue the work of building a new leadership for our union.

How we can stop a sellout & build a real fightback

Next Steps After October 30

Local 100 members: to defend our jobs, wages and working conditions, we’re going to have to take this contract fight into own hands.

With Governor Cuomo pushing them, the MTA is demanding contract givebacks that will have a devastating effect on our jobs, wages and working conditions.

Despite the seriousness of these attacks, however, the Utano leadership of our union waited almost six months after our contract expired before they bothered to hold a contract rally. Worse still, Utano is making it clear that instead of our October 30 rally being the start of a fightback, he’s planning for it to be his first and last act of fake struggle before he begs for a deal that he thinks he can force the members to accept.

The Wall Street Journal (October 21) reported that Utano gave them an interview in which he made his plans clear: “Local 100 leader Tony Utano says he might turn to Gov. Andrew Cuomo … if [the] evening show of force … outside the MTA’s headquarters on Oct. 30 doesn’t push the authority to resolve the standoff.”

Turn to Cuomo? The last time Utano did that, Cuomo vetoed the modest Tier 6 pension reform that the union had been pushing. The fact is that the man leading the attack on us, MTA Chair and CEO Patrick Foye, was chosen for the position by Cuomo and is taking his orders from him.

If we let Utano end our contract struggle before it’s begun and allow him to try to make a deal with Cuomo, we know what to expect. In his decades as a union official Utano has supported the 2% medical payment, the 5 year wage progression, the surrender of our no-layoff clause, the Tier 6 pension rip-off and the outsourcing Local 100 members’ work to private contractors in Stations and CED. So we can be sure he’ll try to stick us with another sellout this time and then tell us that it was the best deal possible.

Thankfully, Local 100’s members don’t have to follow Utano’s strategy of defeat. We can use the October 30 rally to start a real fightback that mobilizes our power to save our jobs, wages and working conditions.

BUILDING THE FIGHTBACK AFTER OCTOBER 30

1. Motions in Divisions

Step One in thwarting moves by Utano & Co. to make a sellout deal is getting this motion in support of the Executive Board calling a General Membership Meeting and a strike against givebacks passed in a majority of the union’s Divisions in the coming month. If you support the motion, talk about it with other members and get them to attend their next Division meeting in the largest possible numbers to get the motion passed. It will stop Utano & Co. from agreeing to any givebacks and give the members the power to decide on the way forward in a General Membership Meeting.

The motion makes it clear that members will support a strike until the MTA withdraws its demands for givebacks and until Local 100 is granted amnesty from any Taylor Law penalties. Of course, many members are understandably wary of striking under Utano & Co. But building a credible threat to strike is essential to us having any hope of forcing Cuomo and the MTA to back down. And if there is a strike, the same organizing and pressure by members that forced Utano & Co. to call it can also thwart moves to sell us out.

2. Organizing to Enforce Safety

There’s more. We all know that the Taylor Law forbids any “concerted action” in pursuit of contractual demands. But we do have the right to shut down unsafe work so long as it is only done in the interests of workers’ and riders’ safety. But especially in subways, we all know that the system is rife with conditions that violate State and Federal health and safety laws, but which our union leaders fail to shut down.

Nothing shows management’s lack of respect for us more than the way they have us work in unsafe conditions. Our union officials’ tolerance for this invites further disrespect, such as with the MTA’s current demands for givebacks.

But with a boost in fighting spirit after October 30, there will be the chance for members to get organized to start shutting down unsafe work. That way we’ll show Cuomo and the MTA that we’re putting a stop to their disrespect. That sort of organizing and action will mean that Cuomo and the MTA take the threat of us striking seriously.

3. Winning Public Support

Governor Cuomo and the MTA are as popular as turds in a swimming pool. They deserve the public’s hatred – their hypocrisy is outrageous. While demanding pay cuts from us and fare hikes from the riding public, just months ago Cuomo got himself a 40% raise, while the mostly rich white powerbrokers on the MTA board enjoy an average income ten times that of the typical transit rider! 

New York transit riders’ anger at poor service and rising fares coincides with the rising anger across the country at the ever-widening wealth gap between the super-rich and the working class, and they have a shared cause. The dirty secret of the New York transit system’s crisis is that state and city politicians deliberately underfund the MTA in order to force it to raise funds by selling bonds to Wall Street investors. The MTA has to make regular payments on profits to those investors, and they get to enjoy those profits tax free!

The MTA’s debt limit is now at a whopping $123 billion – that’s more debt than most of the world’s nations carry! Its annual profit payments to investors now account for 20% of the MTA’s annual budget – more than it spends on the healthcare and pensions of its workers. And those payments are expected to rise to $3.2 billion a year by 2021!

In other words, it’s the demands for profits by do-nothing Wall Street investors that lie behind Cuomo’s attacks on our wages and working conditions, and it’s what lies behind the MTA inflicting fare hikes, service cuts and general misery on the riding public. Imagine how popular Local 100 would be if it ended its leaders’ alliance with Cuomo and threw its resources into exposing this scandal and added opposition to fare hikes and service cuts to its contract demands!

4. Building an Alternative Leadership to Utano & Co. 

Our proposals for motions in Divisions and a General Membership Meeting to thwart a sellout by Utano & Co. and force them to mobilize a real contract struggle can win important victories. But we’re under no illusions: our proposals aim at making the best of a bad situation and we’ll face the danger of being sold out for as long as we’re stuck with our current leadership.

That’s why, as we unite in the broadest possible struggle against Cuomo and the MTA’s demands for givebacks, we appeal to our fellow Local 100 members to get in touch with Local 100 Fightback so we can start working together to build a new leadership for our union based on the principles of union democracy, working-class struggle, and the aims of social justice.

E-mail: Local100Fightback@gmail.com

Website: www.Local100Fightback.blogspot.com

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/Local100Fightback/

Let’s Get This Motion Passed in Every Division!

Utano & Co. are looking to make a deal that will cost us jobs, wages and working conditions. But Local 100 members have rights that empower us to stop a sellout. Our union’s Bylaws are clear: the members can make binding decisions on the union’s policies by passing motions in a majority of the union’s Divisions or by doing so in a General Membership Meeting. So let’s get the following motion passed in all Divisions this coming month. (It already got unanimous support in a Train Operators’ Division meeting.)

If officers try to say you can only get a motion put on the agenda for the following month, don’t let them fool anyone! It’s a lie. That’s not in the Bylaws. Members have the right to vote for any motion they want in Division meetings!

And don’t let them try any tricks with the motion like changing “General Membership Meeting” to “Mass Meeting” – only General Membership Meetings are recognized in the Bylaws as giving the members the right to pass motions that are binding on the union.

* * *

“Whereas: Governor Cuomo and the MTA are demanding outrageous givebacks and other attacks including:

• a real-wage cut through below-inflation 2% “raises,” attacks on overtime and doubling our health insurance payments
• cuts to sick time and vacation time
• the replacement of full-time Local 100 jobs with part-time positions and private non-union labor, and
• even layoffs.

Be it resolved that: 

1. this Division considers these and any other givebacks completely unacceptable;

2. if the MTA does not withdraw its demands for givebacks completely, then in accordance with Local 100’s Bylaws (Section X, “Strikes and Job Action”) this Division will wholeheartedly support the Local 100 Executive Board making a decision to declare a strike until the MTA withdraws its demands for givebacks and until Local 100 is granted amnesty from any Taylor Law penalties; and 

3. before any tentative contractual agreement is reached with the MTA, the Executive Board shall convene a General Membership Meeting in accordance with Local 100’s Bylaws, so that the members may decide on the way forward by raising motions and voting on them.”

All Out for October 30!

All Out for October 30!

Show Cuomo & the MTA We’re Up for a Fight

Show Utano & Co. We Won’t Accept a Sellout

MTA President Byford rightfully called us “miracle workers” for how we make the transit system run. But now that it’s contract time, instead of a “thank you” from the MTA, they’re giving us a “F*** You!”

With Governor Cuomo pushing them, the MTA is demanding that we accept unprecedented contract givebacks that would see our standard of living plummet. They want to:
• cut our take-home pay by hiking our health insurance payments, sticking us with below-inflation 2% wage “raises” and cutting our overtime payments;
• cut our sick time and vacation time; and
• kill jobs through layoffs and by replacing full-time union jobs with part-time positions and the non-union labor of private contractors.

And more than just our future is at stake. In New York City, transit is one of the few remaining sources of decent-paying jobs for working-class people, and racism makes that’s especially true for Blacks, Latinos and immigrants. Cuomo and the MTA’s attacks aim to kill the dream of a better life for all, and especially for people of color. We mustn’t let them.

WE WON’T BE LED LIKE LAMBS TO A SLAUGHTER!

Despite the seriousness of these attacks, our union’s leaders are not even planning for the October 30 rally to be the beginning of a fightback. Utano & Co. are planning for the rally to be the last thing they do before they try to make a sellout deal.

On October 30, President Utano and his minions expect us to act like sheep as they herd us into “their” rally. They expect us to listen cluelessly while they pretend to be putting up a fight. Then they hope to join management at the negotiating table to agree on the extent that our wages, jobs and working conditions will be slaughtered.

Utano made this clear in an interview with the Wall Street Journal (October 21) which reported: “Transport Workers Union Local 100 leader Tony Utano says he might turn to Gov. Andrew Cuomo … if [the] evening show of force by an expected 10,000 workers outside the MTA’s headquarters on Oct. 30 doesn’t push the authority to resolve the standoff.”

Utano’s idea that Cuomo might help us is a cruel joke. The last time Cuomo responded to Utano’s request for involvement in Local 100’s affairs, the governor vetoed the modest Tier 6 pension reform that the union had been pushing! The fact is that the man leading the attack on us, MTA Chair and CEO Patrick Foye, was chosen for the position by Cuomo and is taking his orders from him.

No one should be surprised by Utano’s hopeless strategy. He’s been a union official for decades and during that time he supported every giveback contract including the ones with the 2% medical payment, the 5 year wage progression, the surrender of the no-layoff clause, and many more. He supported the Tier 6 pension rip-off, body-cams on C/Rs, and outsourcing Local 100 members’ work to private contractors in Stations and CED.

Since our contract expired Utano & Co. have let six months go by without lifting a finger to prepare us to defend our wages, jobs and working conditions from the MTA’s attacks. During that time, they’ve offered the MTA a variety of concessions. The problem is that the MTA hasn’t budged on its demands for givebacks that the members will never accept. Utano & Co. fear that if they agree to a deal that’s too bad, a rebellion by the members would sweep them out of their highly-paid positions. So negotiations have reached a stalemate.

But Local 100’s members don’t have to follow Utano’s strategy of defeat. We can use the October 30 rally to build a fightback that can defeat Cuomo’s and the MTA’s attacks.

OCTOBER 30 IS OUR CHANCE

For as long as our officials can’t get a deal with the MTA that they think they can force us to accept, we have a chance to defeat Utano & Co.’s plans to sell us out and instead organize a struggle that can force Cuomo and the MTA to back off from their attacks.

If we show Utano & Co. that we are united against givebacks and are demanding all-out effort to defend our wages, jobs and working conditions, we can make them even more afraid of the consequences of selling out. And if we make Cuomo and the MTA fear that our anger will break out into action on the job, it could force them to back off.

October 30 is our biggest chance to do this by members showing up in force with signs that send both Cuomo and the MTA, as well as Utano & Co., two clear messages:

If Cuomo and the MTA don’t back down,

we are ready to STRIKE

and

We will not accept:

• health insurance hikes

• below inflation wage “raises”

• cuts to our sick time, overtime or vacation time

• the use of part-time non-union jobs

instead of full-time union jobs• or layoffs

All those demands for givebacks are reasons to STRIKE!

BUILDING THE FIGHTBACK AFTER OCTOBER 30

Of course, our efforts to build a fightback against Cuomo and the MTA’s attacks can’t stop with October 30. If we succeed in sending the message that we’ll fight any givebacks, the confidence of members will be given a big boost and it will lay the basis for further organizing and action.

1.  Motions in Divisions

One important way to take the fight forward will be to have motions passed in Divisions that make clear that the members reject the MTA’s demands for givebacks and will support a strike if the MTA does not drop them. Already, Train Operators in one Division meeting have shown their unanimous support for such a motion. And remember: according to our union’s Bylaws, if a majority of the union’s Divisions adopt a position, it becomes the union’s official policy and the leadership is bound to respect it!

2.  Organizing to Enforce Safety

And there’s more. We all know that the Taylor Law forbids any “concerted action” in pursuit of contractual demands that interfere with normal work. But we do have the right to shut down unsafe work so long as it is only done in the interests of workers’ and riders’ safety. And we all know that the system is rife with conditions that violate state and federal health and safety laws, but which our union leaders do nothing to shut down.

With a boost in confidence and fighting spirit after October 30, there will be the chance for members to get organized to start shutting down unsafe work. That way we’ll show Cuomo and the MTA that we’re putting a stop to their disrespect. That sort of organizing and action will mean that Cuomo and the MTA take the threat of us striking seriously.

Of course, many members are wary of striking under Utano & Co. There is a real danger of us being sold out. But building a credible threat to strike is essential if we are to force Cuomo and the MTA to back down. And if there is a strike, the same organizing and pressure by members can thwart moves to sell us out. In this, one important thing will be to learn from our last strike and make sure that one of the demands of the strike is an amnesty from all Taylor Law penalties.

IT’S WRONG THAT SOME OPPOSITIONISTS ARE SAYING THEY WON’T GO ON OCTOBER 30

Because Utano & Co. are so obviously planning on selling us out, some oppositionists are saying that they won’t go to the October 30 rally. We are sure they have the best intentions and are saying this because they don’t want to collaborate with Utano & Co.’s betrayals. But they are very wrong.

October 30 will give members a chance to fight a sellout. Boycotting it means abandoning the members to Utano & Co.’s plans instead of helping the members challenge them. And a weak rally would be a show of weakness that will encourage Cuomo and the MTA to attack us even harder.

Oppositionists mistakenly threatening to boycott October 30 would do well to learn from the history of workers’ struggles under sellout union leaders. It’s a problem that’s as old as unions themselves that the most farsighted and militant workers have already solved. Through their efforts a simple formula evolved: never stop telling the truth and criticizing leaders and would-be leaders when they are doing wrong, but always stand for the unity of the members in action whenever the union leaders take a step forward against the bosses.

That’s one of the key principles of Local 100 Fightback as we work to build an alternative leadership for our union. It’s consistent with the fact that we stand for a democratic union in which the leaders are accountable to the members. And that’s why Local 100 Fightback is organized democratically, with its policies decided by its members meeting and voting.

Members should take note of the fact that we are the only opposition to Utano & Co. that is organized in this democratic way. Oppositions that are led from the top down without the members deciding on policy will only ever reproduce the same problems of unaccountable leaders that the members are looking to overcome.

All this is reason for militant workers to get in contact with us so we can start working together, starting with the October 30 rally.

It’s Time to Start the Fightback!

With Cuomo & the MTA Demanding for Massive Contract Givebacks
Utano’s Do-Nothing Strategy Risks Disaster

It’s Time to Start the Fightback!

When Andy Byford became the MTA’s President he rightly hailed us as “miracle workers” for the way we make the decrepit transit system run. But now it’s time to negotiate the first contract under his watch, the MTA bosses are showing us no respect. They’re demanding the biggest givebacks that transit workers have ever faced.

With Governor Cuomo pushing for massive cost-cutting, the MTA’s contract “proposal” attacks just about every one of our conditions of employment. If we let them get away with it we’ll suffer a huge cut in our take-home pay while working harder than ever. They even want to cut sick and vacation time! (For the details, see our point-by-point breakdown here.)

But we have the power to beat back these attacks and defend our standard of living.

We Can Beat Back These Attacks – Here’s How

Governor Cuomo and the MTA are as popular as turds in a swimming pool. They deserve the public’s hatred – their hypocrisy is outrageous. For example, while demanding pay cuts from us and fare hikes from the riding public, just months ago Cuomo got himself a 40% raise,  while the mostly rich white powerbrokers on the MTA board enjoy an average income ten times that of the typical transit rider! 

Local 100 could win massive support if it mobilized in the streets in protest against them and clearly raised demands not just in defense of ourselves and other union workers facing attack right now by the Governor, but also in defense of the riding public against the Governor’s and MTA’s fare hikes, services cuts and underfunding of transit. Such action would raise the members’ fighting spirit and swing more public support behind us. That alone could force the Governor and MTA to back down and if not, it could pave the way for more decisive action.

We all know that the Taylor Law bans strikes and any “concerted action” that interferes with normal work. A responsible union leadership would be doing all it could to organize the members so that we could credibly threaten to strike and win our demands including amnesty from Taylor Law penalties. But there’s a lot that we can do on the job within the limits of the Taylor Law.

For example, management could be forced to show us respect if our union backed the members in using their right to enforce safe operating conditions. That’s our legal right! Union press conferences could warn the riding public that regrettable inconveniences will be the result of Cuomo’s underfunding of the system to the point where dangerous conditions are common. For example, we all know that there are many defective trains and buses. By taking them out of service the system could be brought to a crawl and Cuomo and the MTA made to face the public’s wrath.

To achieve any of this, however, will require a fight – in our union. Already, Local 100 members have responded to the MTA’s contract “proposal” by flooding Division meetings to demand action. Those efforts will have to grow to pressure our election union officers to back the fightback we need because so far, these “leaders” are showing that they intend to continue the approach that has gotten us into this mess.

Local 100 Leaders’ Do-Nothing Weakness Invited These Attacks

The MTA bosses are showing us no respect because our union’s leaders, headed by Tony Utano, have shown nothing but weakness. The MTA didn’t announce their “proposal” until months after our contract expired and in that time Utano & Co. hadn’t even bothered to call a rally of the members. Such inaction has never happened in Local 100 memory!

With the support of Local 100 Fightback, Executive Board members representing RTO proposed a rally to the Board months ago. Scandalously, Utano responded by rejecting the idea. He said that MTA management was restructuring and we should let them get their act together first!

Now we can see how Cuomo and the MTA repaid Utano’s “generosity.” They used that time to attack Local 100 members as well as LIRR workers, whose contract has also expired. They started with slanders about workers stealing money through overtime and followed that up with lies that we don’t come to work enough. These attacks were designed to feed a media frenzy and turn the riding public against us. They encouraged the worsening epidemic of assaults on transit workers. And they prepared the way for the MTA hitting us with their outrageous demands for givebacks.

We Must End Our Leaders’ Corrupt Alliance with Cuomo & the MTA Bosses!

Utano & Co.’s inaction is the culmination of the alliance with Governor Cuomo and the MTA bosses that was started by previous Local 100 President John Samuelsen. By doing the governor’s dirty work – such as by helping him stick the entire State labor force with the Tier-6 pension ripoff and by supporting Cuomo’s election campaigns – they reckoned Local 100 would be rewarded with slightly less rotten contract wage deals than other unions. Predictably, as this strategy has weakened and isolated Local 100, its prepared the way for Cuomo and the MTA bosses to turn their worst attacks on us.

Incredibly, Utano is still hoping a partnership with Cuomo and the bosses can lead to a deal he can sell to the members. That’s clear from how Utano’s blustered against the MTA’s demands but continued to “stand by his man” and avoid even once naming Governor Cuomo as the man behind these attacks. And it’s clear from the fact that despite the urgent need to rally Local 100’s members for a fightback, Utano is still delaying action. After the MTA announced their demands for givebacks Utano told the E. Board that he might call a rally of the members  .. “in the coming months”!

We can’t afford to let Utano & Co. continue this disastrous strategy any longer.

Local 100 Members are Demanding Action!

Local 100 members responded to the MTA’s announcement of its contract “proposal” with outrage and many took the opportunity to demand answers from their union leaders at their next Division meetings.

The August Train Operators’ meetings, for example, were many times larger than normal, with over a hundred concerned and angry members attending. They made clear that they were in no mood to deal with “any bullshit” from their elected officers. But they quickly learned that they’d have to go over the heads of their “leaders,” raise motions for action themselves, and then force their leaders to call a vote.

The RTO officers at these meetings continued to stick with Utano’s do-nothing approach. They used the stupidest arguments to say that it wasn’t possible to organize a contract rally before October because there are several union parades and cultural events in September.

One train operator at the AM meeting exposed the stupidity of the officials’ arguments by asking that since a rally against the MTA’s attacks is urgently needed, wouldn’t it make sense to postpone these cultural events so that it could happen? The officials’ inability to answer this members’ simple question was devastating. Other members’ responded bluntly, condemning the leadership’s approach as “insane.”

To offer an alternative to Utano & Co.’s recipe for defeat, Local 100 Fightback members at the AM meeting put forward a motion for the union to call a rally at Governor Cuomo’s offices on September 24, the day before the next MTA Board Meeting. Our motion also called for Local 100 to reach out to the LIRR workers’ union to join us in a united rally since their contract is expired, they are also under attack, and a united mobilization would both expand our power as well as undercut Cuomo and the MTA’s ability to divide and conquer us. Our motion was passed unanimously.

At the PM union meeting, Progressive Action’s T/O Executive Board member Evangeline Byars proposed a motion to be raised at the next Executive Board meeting for the union to build a mobilization at the next MTA board meeting on September 25, including mobilizing members to speak at the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting. This motion also called for outreach to the LIRR worker's unions to make it a mass joint union rally. And it called for outreach to other union workers and the riding public as well. 

Local 100 Fightback fully supports this motion. Our members have been working closely with Progressive Action’s Executive Board members and other officials in RTO around safety issues and the need for a contract struggle for months now and look forward to continuing to do so. 

And the groundswell of support for immediate union action didn’t end there. At the Signals Division meeting a week later, a motion for a rally at the MTA Board Meeting on September 5 was raised with the support of Local 100 Fightback, and it was passed unanimously, with the Division’s elected leaders promising to raise it at the next Executive Board meeting.

We urge members of other Divisions to raise similar motions in their upcoming meetings to maximize the pressure on Utano and Co. And regardless of whether the union throws its resources behind the protest, members should get ready to mobilize anyway and protest on September 25 at 2 Broadway. Either way, a rally will be an important step in showing the MTA, Utano & Co., and our fellow Local 100 members, that we’re getting ready for a fight to defend our jobs and living standards. 

What the MTA is Demanding

What the MTA is Demanding

The MTA’s contract “proposal” is a declaration of war on our jobs and living standards. Through attacks on just about every one of our contract’s provisions, it aims to force us to work harder for much less, with less sick time and vacation time, and increasing job insecurity.

Bosses typically demand more givebacks than they really plan to get to help sellout union leaders falsely claim victories when some of the givebacks aren’t accepted. They also often target some divisions of the union more than others so the union leaders can tell the least-hard hit to consider themselves lucky and vote for the deal. We have to beware of those tricks and remember the basic principle of union solidarity – “An Injury To One Is An Injury to All” – and prepare to unite against all of these givebacks. Here are the major details:

● A real-wage cut: A 4 year contract with 2% yearly raises which, because the cost of living is rising faster, would mean a cut in our real take-home pay. Plus, the MTA proposes a bunch of tricks to reduce that supposed “raise” even further, including no raise from January 1-May 15, 2019, no retroactive raises until 60 days past contract ratification, and delaying subsequent “raises” to days after that date.

● A massive hike in health insurance costs: The MTA proposes to double our health insurance contributions from 2% to 4% by the end of the contract! They propose to add a $150 co-pay for Emergency Room visits and require “prior authorization” for prescription drugs. They also talk of “consolidation” (read attacks) of post-Medicare retiree health insurance and vaguely refers to “Coinsurance levels" which usually means attempts the addition of costly deductibles.

● Cutting vacation time: the MTA proposes to extend the length of Vacation Week Accrual to force new hires to work 5 full years before they receive 3 weeks’ vacation, and 10 full years to reach 4 weeks’ vacation! This is a terrible attack on new hires’ quality of life, forcing them to wait 7 years longer the we currently have to before receiving 4 weeks’ vacation.

●  Attacks on sick pay: the MTA wants to make employees who are Injured on Duty go 7 days without pay until their Waiver and Election of paid leave balances kicks in! So they want to stop employees injured on the job from using their accrued leave time and be forced into immediate poverty so they can use that economic pain to drive them back to work while they are injured. That’s sick!

●  Sweeping attacks on overtime: they want to end overtime after 8 hours and only pay it after 40 hours worked per week. They want a Salary Cap in MTA Bus to block overtime payments. And they want to immediately suspend Other than Overtime (OTO) accrual everywhere until the entire workforce averages a 3-days-per-year drop in leave usage including AVAs/PLDs/OTO and sick time, with OTO only being restored if this drop is maintained year after year. Overall, the overtime changes the MTA wants will give management a huge incentive to manipulate work schedules to discipline and punish members, especially if they succeed in their demand for the creation of part-time positions.

●  The introduction of part-time positions throughout the system: they want to create part-time Bus Operator positions as well as introduce “reduced work schedules in Buses and RTO, to allow employees with family or other personal commitments to continue employment but at a lower number of hours per day/week.” If they are allowed to get away with introducing part-time positions, management will use them against the full-time workforce in countless ways to cut our pay and make us fear for our positions.

● Increased use of non-union labor: the MTA wants to expand their use of private contractors in place of CED and Stations Cleaners’ jobs, allowing heavy duty station cleaning at 160-180 stations to be outsourced. The contract “offer” signals a drive to speed-up work by using the job performance standard of non-union workers to set the “standard of cleanliness” and also implement “new means and methods” which “shall include but not be limited to equipment, PPE, chemicals and methods not currently used on the property” which we all know will mean pushing more unsafe work conditions on Cleaners.

● The effective elimination of the Station Agent title and the threat of layoffs: the MTA demands that “the union [agree] to remove any and all impediments to the redeployment of Station and revenue personnel impacted by the implementation of the [cashless fare collection system],” and suggests “exploring training opportunities … for requalification to alternate titles” for Station Agents, with no guarantee they will receive new jobs. Combined with their plan use more private contractors, this means a growing threat of layoffs against Stations division members.

●  Allowing Private Contractors to do their own flagging of train in work zones. This could mean the end of RTO Construction flagging jobs and be a massive invitation to speed up and unsafe work. Scandalously, our union’s leaders have been allowing the MTA to train private contractors to flag and seem ready to accept this attack.

●  A huge attack on the pick rights of employees injured on duty: If you are unable to work for 30 or more days due to injury on duty, are on workers compensation or another leave of absence by the time of your next job pick, the MTA wants you to lose your ability to pick a new job for that pick.

●  Attacks on our ability to use and accrue sick leave: they want to double the employee sick notification window to 2 hours, change sick leave time accrual to a monthly distribution of leave time instead of the current yearly one, eliminate the 70/30 sick leave program, and worsen the sick leave control rules to include documented sick instances (currently they can only count undocumented sick instances for sick control review.)

Key to a Winning Fightback – a Transit Worker-Rider Alliance

Key to a Winning Fightback –

a Transit Worker-Rider Alliance

Local 100 Fightback member T/O Juan Cruz at2018 protest against booth closings in Brooklyn.

Divide-and-conquer. It’s the oldest trick in the book and Governor Cuomo, along with the MTA’s bosses, have turned to it with a vengeance in preparation for their contract negotiations with transit workers.

A week before Local 100’s contract was set to expire Cuomo and the MTA triggered a media frenzy by going to the media and alleging, without any evidence, that workers were “stealing” from the public by fraudulently claiming overtime. At the Long Island Rail Road, whose union workers’ contract has also expired, the MTA even ordered police to monitor workers clocking in and out!

The truth is that overtime has increased as management has broken its promises to increase hiring and is pushing us harder than ever to make the decrepit system run.

For a United Struggle with LIRR Workers!

The fact that LIRR workers are also without a contract and that we are both facing attacks from Cuomo and the MTA points to the potential and need for Local 100 to unite with the LIRR workers’ union in a joint struggle. Unity would make us more powerful. That’s why Local 100 Fightback’s motions for a rally against the MTA have emphasized the need to reach out to the LIRR workers to join us.

We know that many Local 100 members are disgusted by the way we are treated with much less respect and make so much less in wages and benefits than LIRR and MetroNorth workers. We have every right to be angry about this. But we must understand that we are not going to win any battles against Cuomo and the bosses by showing hostility to other working people. If we do, it will only makes it easier for the MTA Bosses and Cuomo divide and conquer all of us.

Why Local 100 Should Defend Riders from Fare Hikes and Service Cuts

With their outrageous claims of overtime theft, Cuomo and the MTA bosses aimed to renew the stereotype of transit workers as greedy and turn the riding public against us. They want us to be without public support as we face their demands for big contract givebacks. And they did it knowing their lies would only worsen the epidemic of assaults of transit workers.
That shows how little Cuomo and the MTA bosses care about us, and it shows how desperate they are. The reality is that they make life a misery for both transit workers and riders and they are terrified we will unite against them.
The fact is that transit workers and riders face a common enemy. The dirty truth behind the crisis in transit service is not only the fact that the system has been underfunded for decades, but that those cuts in funding were designed to force the MTA to increasingly rely for funds on issuing bonds to Wall Street investors that guarantee a regular profit being paid to them in return.
The MTA’s debt limit is now at a whopping $123 billion – that’s more debt than most of the world’s nations carry! Its annual profit payments to investors now account for 20% of the MTA’s annual budget – more than it spends on the healthcare and pensions of its workforce. And those payments are expected to rise to $3.2 billion a year by 2021.
In other words, it’s the demands for profits by greedy, do-nothing Wall Street investors that lies behind Cuomo’s attacks on our wages and working conditions, and its what lies behind the MTA inflicting fare hikes, service cuts and general misery on the riding public.
Imagine how popular Local 100 would be if it threw its resources into exposing this scandal and mobilizing workers and riders in protest against both the attacks on our wages and working conditions as well against the MTA’s fare hikes and service cuts!
That’s why Local 100 Fightback has always fought for our union to come out in defense of the riding public against fare hikes and service cuts. We need the public’s support if we are going to be able to defend our jobs, wages and working conditions, and there’s no better way to win it than by standing up for the riding public and showing that we’re on their side. It’s the right thing to do.

The main obstacle to such a struggle is, of course, Local 100’s leadership. Their alliance with Governor Cuomo has included siding with him and the MTA bosses and not lifting a finger to defend the riding public.

Unfortunately, we can’t replace Utano & Co. before we mobilize a fightback against the attacks coming from Cuomo and the MTA bosses. So right now we have to do all we can to force our elected leaders to break their alliance with the Governor and start to resist the MTA’s attacks with a united protest in defense of both transit workers and the riding public.