Consolidation lawsuit

Judge Emily Jane Goodman of the Supreme Court of the State of New York - New York County Part 17 on May 20, 2011 dismissed the case ‘in its entirety, with costs and disbursements to defendants as taxed by the Clerk of the Court; and it is further ORDERED that the Clerk is directed to enter judgment accordingly’.

Now lets discuss why that was not a good sign for John E. Samuelsen, president of TWU Local 100 - Take Backward Our Union - TBOU. In general in cases sometimes you win some and lose some however not to lose ‘in its entirety’. Background on the case - it was brought up to undo the Memorandum of Understanding - Attachment E - Surface Consolidation on page A15 in addition to the MTA New York City Transit - Department of Buses - Implementation Agreement - OA/TA Surface Consolidation on page A102 - A106  dated August 25, 2003 in the Collective Bargaining Agreement between MTA and TWU Local 100 which is known colloquially as ‘consolidation list of 2002’.

There is no question that when TWU Local 100 entered into this memorandum of understanding it has presented a dilemma to the layoff of 2010. This case also revealed a new dimension that John E Samuelsen does not know what he wants to accomplish with this lawsuit it is obvious he went along with the advice of the lawyers, the result speak for themselves. Imagine if you are an injured party you definitely want to be made whole or complete - you will employ the attorneys to accomplish your wishes - not the other way around. Here in this case you learn we like the MOU benefits however we do not like it’s other parts like the layoff of 2010. 

It is also known that the MTA was willing to concede if John E Samuelsen would withdraw the lawsuit. However he did not take that which could have been advantage to the membership but rather rolled the dice, went ahead with the lawsuit with the outcome ‘lose in its entirety’. Now John E Samuelsen is banking on the appeal at the Appellate Division to rule in our favor. It is clear there was no sound strategy going in with this lawsuit whether in the long term or short term in tackling this matter. It revealed hodgepodge thinking however we are dealing with Take Backward Our Union team.

It revealed that in KIngs County we ‘...relied on the validity and enforceability of the MOU that they now seek to disavow...’ page 4. We here in why did you join the union believe that John E Samuelsen tricked our brethren in MaBSTOA into believing in this lawsuit however his motives are clearly reelection of 2012. We do not believe Judge Goodman did not grasp that this consolidation list did not violate PAL which was demonstrated on the footnote 3 on page 11 ‘...is based solely on the contention that the Public Authorities Laws has been violated...’ it incomprehensible that a case would be based on single theory which Judge Goodman finds ‘...TWU has failed to plead facts to support that the MOU and Consolidation provision violate PAL § 1203-a (3)(b), or that defendants have implemented these writings in such a way as to violate the statute’. It is strange that we could not plead facts. Can you guess who were our lawyers? Do you know how much salary John E Samuelsen has awarded them from our hard earned membership dues? What a waste of membership dues since we have to pay MTA monies as the Judge ordered.