The Take Back Our Union (TBOU) Women's Committee invites the TWU Local 100 Women's Committee to Brunch this Saturday December 19 , 2009

This Saturday December 19, the Take Back Our Union (TBOU) women's committee has invited the TWU Local 100 women's committee to a Solidarity Brunch Meeting . The purpose of this meeting is to put the recent bitter TWU elections behind us and to do what's best for all of the sisters in TWU Local 100. The meeting will take place this Saturday at the IAC located at 55 West 17 Street on the 5th floor (between 5th and 6th avenue in Manhattan)

WHAT : Solidarity Brunch to Rebuild TWU LOCAL 100 from a Women's Prospective
DATE : Saturday December 19
TIME : 10:00AM to 1:00PM
Where: 55 West 17 street 5th floor in Manhattan
Sorry Guys this is a Women's only meeting,To take part in the rebuilding of TWU Local 100 visit our blog often at www.tbou.org

The MTA Attacks TWU Local100 ,Transit Riders and Students

JOIN COUNCIL MEMBER CHARLES BARRON, TRANSIT WORKERS, RIDERS AND YOUTH TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 16, 2009 8:30 AM


TO PROTEST THE MTA'S ATTACK ON STUDENTS AND OTHERS


Wednesday, 8:30 AM at MTA Headquarters, 347 Madison Street , Bet 44th and 45th Street


As Wall Street prepares to lavish its bankers and traders with billions in year-end bonuses, the MTA is getting ready to worsen the economic crisis for millions of New Yorkers.

Why? To make sure bankers get their billion-dollar bonuses by paying off the monstrous debt service the MTA owes to the banks.

Don’t believe the media reports claiming that the raises – standard 3.5% and 4% annual increases – awarded to the transit workers on Friday are the cause of these outrageous cuts. To claim a crisis over $400 million – a pittance in comparison to the billions in bonuses going out to Wall Street even as we speak – is ridiculous. $30 billion in bonuses will be paid out among the top three banks alone. Trillions were handed out in bailout money.

In fact, it is the banks who are creating this crisis. The MTA is scrambling to pay its debt service to the long list of banks it owes money to, many of whom are collecting interest on loans whose principle was paid off long ago.

If anybody needs to “sacrifice,” it is these banks, who are bleeding public transportation and every other sector of society dry even as they kick people out of their homes and loot the treasury to cover their casino-gambling losses.

By re-introducing the “doomsday cuts” in a jobless recovery – cuts that were supposedly avoided mere months ago – the MTA has made it crystal clear that its role is to serve the rich at the expense of the riders. Its illegitimacy is obvious to all. The riders, transit workers, and all the people who make this city and its subway run are the only ones who can be trusted to make these decisions justly. Bail out the riders, not the banks!To stay informed about the MTA service cuts visit www.takebackourunion.org or www.BailOutPeople.org

Incoming TWU Local Officers to appear live on WBAI 99.5 tomorrow at 7:00PM

WBAI Radio's Building Bridges: Your Community & Labor Report
Produced & Hosted by Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash
Monday, December 14, 2009, 7 - 8 p.m. EST, over 99.5 FM
or streaming live at http://www.wbai.org
Transit Workers Take Back Union After Bitter Election join the the newly elected leadership of TWU Local 100
. John Samuelsen, President-Elect ,TWU Local 100
. Israel Rivera, Secretary Treasurer-Elect
. Benita Johnson, Recording Secretary-Elect
. Angel Giboyeaux, Administrative VP -Elect
Tomorrow live at 7PM 99.5FM

the Take Back Our Union (TBOU)
slate won the hotly contested TWU Local 100 elections Dec. 7 after a
two-year campaign of working on the members issues and fighting with the community to stop the MTA from cutting service to the riding public.They defeated the administration of Roger Toussaint and his hand pick successor Curtis Tate and look to rebuild TWU Local 100 from the bottom up.

Their first priorities will be getting the MTA to honor an arbitration award
granting union members 11% raises under a 3-year contract that this pass Friday December 11, Judge Peter Sherwood ruled that the MTA was to give transit workers there pay increases. The new TWU leadership vows to increase the fighting of cutbacks due to the reduced revenue to the MTA.
*******
Building Bridges and most WBAI Programs are now being archived
for 90 Days. They are also being PodCast. These links will be live.
15 minutes after the program ends. To listen, download or pod cast
archived shows go to http://archive.wbai.org/allshows.php
Visit our web site -
www.buildingbridgesradio.org and visit the take back our union website at www.takebackourunion.org and our blog at www.tbou.org

TWU Local 100 Defeats MTA in Court Battle Over Arbitraion Awarded Contract.

Judge Peter Sherwood of the supreme court of NY state has upheld TWU/MTA arbitration awards and the MTA’s petition to vacate the awards. This means the MTA is running of options in stopping transit workers from getting the fare increases they deserve.

The MTA and the Mayor went to court to hold up the arbitration award in order to continue to punish transit workers for the 2005 strike .The MTA's case was weak to begin with at the court hearings in November the MTA lawyers only attacked two provisions in the arbitration decision one was giving transit workers 3% in 2011 the last year of the contract and the other was the capping of the 1.5% health care payments. The reason the MTA did not attack the 4% raises in 2009 and 2010 is the arbitration agreement calls for these 4% raises in 2009 and 2010 to be staggered so that the MTA would have the ability within there budget to pay transit workers the same 4% raises as other public sector workers where given.This also means however , where as transit workers where given the same 4% raises as other NYC public sector workers actual take home pay for TWU members would only be around 2.5% for 2009 and 2010.

The ironic part is TWU Local 100 members would have gotten a 3.5% wage increase in 2011 but wages where cut by a half percent to pay for the capping of the 1.5% health care tax. The TBOU independent research team has obtain documents which show that TWU members paid almost 57 million dollars to the MTA in 2006 and 2007 due to the 1.5% health care tax. In 2008 alone the 1.5% health care tax cost transit workers $32,575,236.28. Records for 2009 are incomplete but for the first half of the 2009 transit workers have already given the MTA over 20 million dollars due the 1.5% health care tax. So where as capping the 1.5% is nice transit workers should keep in mind two things one is they paid for the capping of the 1.5% with a wage reduction and two the 1.5% was clearly stated to be for retirement health care benefits in the 2006 MOU. To stay informed visit www.tbou.org daily.

Incoming TWU-Local 100 President John Samuelsen Scheduled to Appear on WWRL 1600AM's "Working New York" - Saturday, December 12th 2009

Incoming TWU-Local 100 President John Samuelsen is scheduled to appear on Working New York this weekend. The program, which is broadcast on WWRL 1600AM is hosted by longtime New York radio host and political commentator Mark Riley and airs Saturday afternoons from 2-5PM EST.

"Working New York" is a platform for people who are working, people looking for work, and people who have worked all their lives and are now retired. It's a show for unionized workers, workers fighting to maintain their jobs, and all those New Yorkers who work hard to keep this city alive and well.

Mark Riley talks to elected officials, union officials, labor experts, and more. "But most important," says Riley, "we talk to you, the hard working men and women of the New York City tri-state area."

WWRL proudly boasts the most progressive talk in the nation.WWRL 1600AM, is licensed to Access 1 Communications Corp., and is a 24-hour African American owned and operated radio station serving the New York metro area.

TBOU Action Alert - Tomorrow Saturday December 12 Join the Take Back Our Union (TBOU) Movement for Two Big Events

It's been a great year for the Take Back Our Union (TBOU) Movement and as the year comes to a close we will like to invite all of our co-workers in transit as well as all of our supporters from the social justice movement to two big end of the year TBOU events tomorrow Saturday December 12, 2009.

In the morning starting at 11:00 AM to 2:00PM there is a Solidarity Brunch hosted by the TBOU Women's committee at the International Action Center located at 55 West 17 street 5th floor all sisters in TWU Local 100 are invited in good or bad standing.

Also tomorrow Saturday December 12 starting at 8:00pm please join us for our first ever Holiday Extravaganza at the Blarney Stone Bar and Grill Located at 121 Fulton Street New York NY 10038. Tickets are $40 which includes open bar & buffet tickets may be purchase at door or online (see post below).

TWU Local 100 Election - NYC Reformers Rise Again by Steve Early

NYC Reformers Rise Again—In Transit And Teamsterdom

Working In These Times
Wednesday
December 9
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/


By Steve Early

The rise, fall, and rise again of union reformers is a familiar story line in American labor. To some observers, in fact, it's a source of much cynicism about the whole project of union democracy and reform.

The day-to-day demands of full-time elected office, combined with heavy pressure to conform to the norms of business unionism, has led more than a few rank-and-file heroes down the primrose path, sooner or later.

After reformers get elected, their "Si se puede" campaign rhetoric has been known to give way to a litany of excuses about why "we can't" -- empower members, fight the boss, or "build a new union," as promised during the campaign. There are, fortunately, always some committed activists ready to push the boulder of reform back up the hill again. But starting over is never easy. It requires winning support from fellow workers now angry, frustrated and/or disillusioned by the actual or perceived failure of previous insurgencies.

Two iconic New York City labor unions—TWU Local 100 and Teamsters Local 804--provide a recent case in point.

Local 100 of the Transport Workers has 38,000 subway worker and bus driver members. In 2000, a Caribbean-born track worker--bearing the name of a great 18th century liberator--took office as the presidential candidate of the "New Directions" caucus. Roger Toussaint was a battle-tested militant, with a left-wing political background, previously fired by the Transit Authority. His New Directions comrades-in-arms had contested many earlier elections, less successfully. They had also spent two decades or more trying to strengthen the union, from the bottom up, through workplace agitation and organizing, a story well told in "Hell on Wheels," a Solidarity pamphlet by Steve Downs, the elected chairperson of Local 100's Train Operators Division. (See www.solidarity-us.org for ordering info).

In office, as Downs recounts, it didn't take Toussaint long to create a personal patronage machine, rather than "the democratic, member-run union that New Directions and thousands of the local's members had fought for." Reform of the local became "a top-down, staff-driven process...Officers and members who pushed for a more participatory approach were frozen out."

As a result, Local 100 was in weak organizational shape when it skimped on contract campaigning in 2005 and then plunged into a brave but bungled strike in violation of the draconian Taylor Act. The dispute ended with healthcare give-backs, deep internal discord, costly fines for members and their union, Roger in jail for a few days, and suspension of automatic dues deduction. This last penalty--still in effect--has left Local 100 with a very big and disgruntled "open shop."

Only 18,000 out 38,000 workers are still supporting TWU financially. The local's deeply eroded and demoralized stewards' network--long neglected by Toussaint -- has been unable to collect more voluntary dues or do much else to enforce the contract, except in remaining pockets of workplace self-activity.

By 2006, the increasingly unpopular Local 100 president had to rely on a divided field of challengers to win re-election with only 43% of the vote. As reported accurately by no less an authority than Wikipedia, Toussaint soon came under renewed factional "criticism as he began removing union officers who were elected on opposition slates and working more closely with New York City Transit management."

In Teamsters Local 804, based in Queens, the trajectory from militancy to complacency, demobilization, and de facto company unionism occurred in a better-known national context. 804 is the home local of Ron Carey, who died of lung cancer a year ago. In the 1970s and '80s, under his leadership, 804 was a formidable island of rank-and-file resistance to the largest Teamster employer in the country, United Parcel Service. In those days, Carey and his members were surrounded by a cesspool of Teamster corruption and gangsterism in New York City and New Jersey, plus union collaboration with UPS management just about everywhere else.

In 1989-91, Carey joined forces with Teamsters for a Democratic Union to wage a successful grassroots campaign to oust old guard officials at the national union level. Carey's six tumultuous but productive years as IBT president in Washington reached their peak with the Teamsters' 1997 strike victory over UPS; shortly, thereafter, he was forced to step down from office in a re-election campaign fund-raising scandal, that also led to his indictment. Acquitted of all charges in 2001, he remained painfully banned from having any contact with his former co-workers in 804.

Over time, Carey's successors in the leadership of this 7,000-member UPS local drifted into the camp of current Teamster President James Hoffa. Two years ago, they gladly went along with a Hoffa-engineered UPS contract settlement that was overturned, in 804 at least, by dissatisfied members. The TDU-backed rank-and-file campaign against concessions in the 804 local supplement to the UPS national contract forced management to put a better offer on the table.

The final deal reversed a 30 percent pension cut, stopped a proposed wage cut, and saved the "25 & Out" retirement option that was key legacy of the Carey years. In a fatal pique of annoyance over this political setback for them, Local 804 officials didn't even send flowers to the funeral home or attend the wake when Carey died a year ago. At a memorial service for Ron last February, hundreds of UPSers showed up, angry and determined to avenge this grievous slight -- and, more importantly, take back their union--at the polls this fall.

In Local 100, that's exactly what the anti-Toussaint forces called themselves -- Take Back Our Union (TBOU). Roger himself wasn't on the ballot this time because he now has a high-paid staff job with the TWU's tiny and not very helpful national organization, whose failings he once criticized harshly (during his previous incarnation as a rank-and-file militant and, for a few years, dissident local leader).

Instead, a candidate backed by Toussaint and favored by the national union squared off against John Samuelsen, a Local 100 vice-president from Brooklyn with a long history of activism around track safety issues and the fight against contracting out. On Monday, Dec. 7, Samuelsen's multi-racial TBOU team won all four local-wide officer positions, including the presidency and four out of seven V-P slots. In his own race for the top job, Samuelsen won by nearly 900 votes out of more than 10,000 cast. Just a few days earlier, on Dec. 3, there was a record turn-out (1,000 more voters than before) in the balloting for 804's officers and executive board members. The TDU-assisted "804 Members United Slate" won all 11 seats, turfing out the hapless Hoffa fans in their union hall by an even larger margin of two to one.

In both races, the challengers produced detailed campaign platforms that were strikingly similar. (See www.takebackourunion.org or www.804membersunitedslate.org for details.)TBOU's literature stressed the need for an "open, democratic union," "member-driven, clean of corruption," and "single-minded in its resolve to break the cycle of concessionary bargaining." As UPS worker and 804 president-elect Tim Sylvester explained last week, "We laid out ten changes we'll make to build a stronger Local 804. We're not going to be able to fix all the problems overnight. But we're committed to implementing a reform program and tapping the power of an informed and organized membership."

When they take office like Sylvester in January, Samuelsen and his running-mates--Izzy Rivera, Benita Johnson, and Angel Giboyeaux -- will face an Augean stable full of accumulated organizational and financial problems. High on their "to-do" list will be a systematic membership drive, to get delinquent dues payers back into the TWU fold, and a push to secure long overdue 2005 contract pay increases that are still tied up in a post-arbitration appeal by management. Unusual among U.S. trade unionists at the moment, Samuelsen has a singular focus on "building rank-and-file power and re-establishing union strength in the workplace." At a day-long transition planning discussion, held in Manhattan last month with ninety TBOU supporters, John kept returning to the theme that Local 100 wouldn't become a "powerhouse" in NY labor again until it first re-built "layers of density" on the shop-floor, fought to "control the pace of work," and tackled, rather than ignored, day-to-day problems like the "disgusting condition" of subway employee bathrooms.

At a time when unions like SEIU are downplaying the role of workplace representation and any fight over working conditions--and, in some cases, even replacing stewards with "call centers"--Samuelsen talks non-stop about the centrality of elected shop stewards, who can't easily be replaced with "loyal bums" at the whim of a local president. He believes stewards should be trained and encouraged to deal directly with management as "on-site dispute handlers" and key contract enforcers. In the legislative/political arena, he thinks Local 100 should rely less on high-priced lobbyists and consultants or union check-writing to politicians. He wants more rank-and-file members to run for office themselves and pressure public officials directly, in their own neighborhoods and communities.

The 42-year-old Samuelson is particularly concerned about the challenge of reaching younger, newly hired transit workers. In a pre-election message to them, he warned of a Transit Authority management that has "stepped up its abuse of our members and routinely violates our contract." The Toussaint regime's abandonment of "any real attempt to mobilize the membership to defend our jobs" has produced a union "in full retreat on safety, discipline, job picks, and seniority rights."

Now faced with the challenge of actually stopping that retreat and finding ways for Local 100 to go on the offensive again, Samuelsen and his slate will need all the help they can get from members, new and old, next year, as will those picking up Ron Carey's banner in Teamsters Local 804.

(Steve Early was a CWA organizer, contract negotiator, and strike strategist in the northeast for 27 years. He is a longtime supporter of Teamsters for a Democratic Union and

the author of "Embedded With Organized Labor: Journalistic Reflections on the Class War at Home," Monthly Review Press, 2009, a book that discusses TDU and other union reform efforts.)

TWU-Local 100 leadership cancels scheduled Saturday, December 12th Mass Membership meeting

This is a clear violation of the by-laws, as an annual mass membership meeting is required by charter.

*Flyers with a rescheduled date are being distributed, however, there is no indication that the new leadership has agreed to hold this rescheduled meeting.

TWU Local 100 Election Results - Its Take Back Our Union (TBOU) in a Landslide

The Take Back Our Union (TBOU) slate wins in a landslide in the TWU Local 100 election as they sweep the Top offices and take 4 of 7 vice president spots and control of the TWU Local 100 executive board.

The newly elected officers will take office on Jan. 1, 2010.

Results:

President
John Samuelsen (TBOU) 5549
Curtis Tate (UI) 4681

Secretary-Treasurer
Izzy Rivera (TBOU) 5296
Ed Watt (UI) 4855

Recording-Secretary
Benita Johnson (TBOU) 5511
Andreeva Pinder (UI) 4560

Administrative VP
Angel Giboyeaux (TBOU) 5255
Barry Roberts (UI) 4866

Vice-Presidents

RTO
Kevin Harrington (TBOU) 928
William Wyatt (UI) 465

MoW
Tony Utano (TBOU) 1505
Charles Ayala (UI) 782

Stations
Maurice Jenkins (TBOU) 550
Kendra Hill (UI) 434

CED
Richard Rivera (TBOU) 527
Nelson Rivera (UI) 672

TA Surface
Harry Wills (TBOU) 430
Stephan Thomas (UI) 557
JP Patafio (Independent) 479

MTA Bus
John Day (TBOU)746
Enzo Sinonna (UI) 661

MaBSTOA
Brian Clarke of the UI slate ran unopposed.

Take Back Our Union thanks all of the members of TWU Local 100 for taking the time to vote in the election and supporting us.

To stay updated and for breaking TWU Local 100 election news visit our website : www.takebackourunion.org.

CELEBRATE THE VICTORY:

Don't forget the 1st ever Take Back Our Union (TBOU) Movement Holiday Extravaganza is taking place this Saturday, December 12th at the Blarney Stone Bar and Grill located at 121 Fulton Street New York NY 10038.

Buy your tickets now online:

Or to call for tickets visit www.takebackourunion.org.

THE TAKE BACK OUR UNION MOVEMENT INVITES YOU TO ITS FIRST ANNUAL HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA

DATE:
Saturday, December 12

TIME:
8:00 PM - Until

PLACE:
Blarney Stone
121 Fulton Street
New York, NY 10003

TICKETS:
$40.00

Open Bar for beer, wine, soft drinks and well drinks (8pm to midnight)

Hot Food all night buffet style

Music by Sin City Movement Productions

Buy tickets online:




Purchase tickets (in person)
Derick Echevarria 718-593-5553
Paul Piazza 201-310-6030
Maurice Jenkins 347-768-6741
Christine Williams 718-781-3744
Marvin Holland 347-804-6982
Felicia Fields 696-591-7246


**TICKETS MAY ALSO BE PURCHASED AT THE DOOR**

Travel via train: A/C Train to Broadway Nassau / 2,3,4,5, to Fulton Street