As the MTA budget scenario was being painted by the former MTA CEO and Chairman Jay H Walder in early 2010, there just wasn’t enough money to go around. Then he went on with the choices the MTA faces which are frankly impossible to make. He went on that even if he were King Solomon, every possible portioning out of the budget will still leave MTA in financial dire straits. It is after all a zero-sum game - he was a good salesman - he truly sold that vision to New York City.
As many of you are aware TWU Local 100 was hit hard with lay offs of over 1000 members some members are still out and have not been rehired, some who were unfortunate passed away waiting to be recalled. As we know many of our fellow members are on their own, they are not wealthy. They are faced with financial, health and other daily dilemmas. None of them planned that they would be laid off we believe many of them were thinking they would be working.
We know many of our fellow members who are still laid off and who are doing so on little more than handouts since their bank accounts depleted long ago. That is where TWU Local 100 members did much more with the Solidarity Fund to provide for our fellow co workers with a helping hand in facing their medical bills - it was important to our fellow co workers.
Roger Toussaint the former president of TWU Local 100 who was the current director of strategy and planning in the TWU International what did he do to try to help avert the layoff of 2010? Did he at least offer any help? Definitely he has forgotten our laid off co workers. Those who were in his administration did nothing as well. They just let it happen and stood idle by while this happened that is their form of solidarity - one wonders why.
That is their record - given they may have some explanation to do. Imagine choosing between these - this situation must not continue. It cannot continue our fellow co workers who are laid off have no financial wiggle room in their daily lives. Along with certain other fixed costs in their expenditures. We know in our hearts that our fellow laid off workers deserve to be rehired back, it has been a long wait.
I consider myself an expert on the layoffs. My members in Stations took the brunt of them. Out of 1000 members laid-off stations was hit with over 454 of them.
ReplyDeleteI do not pretend to know what Roger Toussaint did in his duties in the International to help L100 in this crisis. To guess would be foolish on my part.
But from what I saw, being on the front line every day, few helped my department when we needed it the most.
John Samuelsen was in the forefront among those few who fought for us. We are grateful and have a long memory. Other divisions I am sure, felt bad for Stations, they were sympathetic towards us, but at the end of the day they did not do too much.
I can tell you the International TWU did know about the lay-offs in advance. Because at the 2009 TWU convention the TBOU delegates made certain the Hierarchy of TWU International knew about the coming lay-offs.
While some people went to the convention looking for better jobs and hold grudges they did not get them, we went trying to get some help for the lay-offs we knew were just around the corner.
I do know what our current President John Samuelsen did during the lay-offs.
He fought side by side with Stations Department every step of the way.
Read that again: Every Step of The Way.
He was a big part of the TRO that almost stopped the layoffs along with ace lawyer Arthur Schwartz and stations VP Maurice Jenkins.
He came to the public hearigs. He helped organize and facilitate our protests outside Walders’ house.
He also put his political future on the line to support the Solidarity Fund to help laid-off members in good standing and their families with their medical bills. Something no other Union has ever done.
To make matters even funnier, the some of the same people that contested the membership vote on the Solidarity Fund, now want a membership vote on the New Union Hall. With some people you can’t win, if they get a vote and their side loses, they scream fraud, if they don’t get a vote they sue you. Go figure.
Samuelsen supported my department 100% and for that alone Stations owes him a debt of gratitude.
It was not an easy trick fighting to keep our 3% raise and fight to get our people back to work.
Some people about to be laid-off said:” Give the raise back so they won’t lay us off” and those in danger of lay-offs said “ I’m not affected by the lay-offs so who cares.”
I know one T/O, another one of those guys who bashes Samuelsen all the time, who while he worked said my Station Agents deserved to get laid-off, because they are rude to people and made him swipe his pass. I heard him say it in person. Thankfully he no longer works for the Union.
But I digress.
The layoffs did not have to happen, they were simply a way for Walder to try to break into our contract. My proof? The MTA paid almost as much in O.T. in my department as they would have paid for those workers’ salaries. They wanted our 3%.
Somehow Samuelsen did both: He got us our 3% raise and kept our contract AND will get nearly everyone back to work. And you know what, our Local came out of it stronger. He made the tough chice and it worked. Those of you in departments that had no lay-offs or did not fight for your laid-off people may doubt it but I was there all the way and it is true.
My people in Stations are not all back to work, but they will be all back in the coming months. All 454 of them.
No matter what anyone says about Samuelsen and what anyone says about my department; Stations one thing is true: when things were at its worst, we did not run, we did not hide, we did not blame others, we fought, whether it was making Walder move from his fancy co-op or telling him to kiss our butts, we fought. We answered the bell. And Sameuslen answered the bell with us.
What other TWU Presidential candidate can say that?
Nobody I know of.