Monthly regular membership meeting

Transport Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO constitution article XIV - Local Unions, section 6. Where reasonably possible, each Local Union shall hold monthly meetings.  By - Laws of the Transport Workers Union of Greater New York Local 100, AFL-CIO article XIII - Meetings (b) Each Section or Division shall meet at least once each month...

Clearly the constitution and the by laws points to a monthly regular meeting as a right to the membership’s wellbeing as granted in the above documents. However, we in the TA Surface operators division were denied our rightful monthly regular membership meeting on April 19, 2011 which was cancelled. That goes against the principles, the intentions of the TWU constitution and the Local by laws - it also reflects the operators division is unable to function if Willie Rivera is absent. We resent and abhor that notion - clearly Willie Rivera is above the TWU constitution and Local 100 bylaws. The breakdown in the chain of command that was demonstrated by this cancellation revealed the TA Surface operator division is a disgrace. There is no coherent and reasonable explanation why a monthly regular membership meeting would be cancelled.

Members of the TA Surface operator division showed up for their monthly regular membership meeting at the Y on 63 Street to find out that there was no one to conduct the monthly meeting. The membership felt the physical sense of treachery. There are 9 elected officers in the TA Surface operator division, they are Willie Rivera chair, Gibson 1st vice chair, Armando Serrano 2nd vice chair, David Smith 3rd vice chair, Marcia Phinn-Oliver recording secretary, Lloyd Archer member of executive board, Ron Carter member of executive board, Latonya Crisp-Sauray member of executive board, Brander J.L. White member of executive board. Then there are 7 depot chairs with their vice chairs and recording secretaries giving a total of 21 elected officers. Now if you add 9+21=30 that is a huge number - it is incomprehensible that out of those 30 elected officers there is no one available to be able to run a monthly regular membership meeting. Clearly our division suffered pain and the damage has been done.

TA Surface operator division revealed that those 30 officers are unable to chair a monthly regular membership meeting. That wont happen in other departments - TA Surface operator division should never be tied to Willie Rivera’s whims and wishes. If he has taken a vacation it does not mean that the membership should be denied their rightful monthly regular membership meeting. TA Surface operator division should be able to function without Willie Rivera we are not paralyzed - he does not hold the holy grail. Clearly Willie Rivera is unable to perform his duties, delegate or relegate (while we remember he & Scalafani belong to the JP ‘UFC’ - who signed a letter instructing our vice president to lay off his hands in running the division) in order to ensure the monthly membership meeting as stated in the bylaws.

We are also aware that the rent for the meeting hall was paid in full - clearly here is an example of corruption - membership dues thrown away what a waste. TWU Local 100 should follow the example of the NYC Department of Education policy for when a teacher is absent. In the case that a teacher is unable to come there is a substitute teacher that comes as a replacement so that the students are not left without a teacher. The same principle should have been followed for that meeting on April 19, 2011 - since Willie Rivera was unable to attend there should have been another person to cover the meeting. However since that was not the case we members were left on our own.

We here in why did you the union are jealous of our brethren in the Mabstoa who have cohesiveness in their department as well as how they conduct their affairs in the benefit of their membership rather than the individualism of the TA Surface. We salute Mabstoa who exemplify what the strength of a union should be. We have high regard and admiration - we in the TA Surface operator division would do our best to imitate that spirit and to transform the TA Surface department to a comparable level of Mabstoa.