TWU Says, "Fifty-Fifty is Fair"

TWU Local 100 is turning up the heat on Mayor de Blasio for refusing to help pay for the MTA’s comprehensive subway Action Plan – and calling on the city’s representatives on the MTA board to resign if de Blasio doesn’t come through for riders.

Local 100 on Thursday  will launch a television, print and digital advertising campaign demanding de Blasio allocate a fraction of the city’s $4 billion surplus in taxpayer money to reverse the summer of hell facing NYC Subway riders.

The first installment is a 30-second TV commercial that includes riders telling de Blasio to stop playing politics and match the funding pledged by Gov. Cuomo.

“The mayor can’t run and he can’t hide from his responsibility,” TWU International and Local 100 President John Samuelsen said. “This is a crisis. The riders, who are the mayor’s constituents, are suffering. We need real leadership, not finger pointing and political posturing.”

Transit workers and TWU Local 100 elected officers packed the MTA’s monthly board meeting in Manhattan Wednesday morning to show their support for the action plan, which includes increased inspection and maintenance of signals and trains, additional emergency response teams to fix subway cars and signals that fail in service and more aggressive cleaning of tracks and drainage systems.

“It’s a solid plan, and the men and women of TWU are 100-percent on board," Tony Utano, TWU Local 100 Vice President of the Maintenance of Way division, said. “But this is a dead-end track without the necessary funding.

"Without financial support from the state – and the city - riders will be forced to suffer through more delays, more breakdowns and more misery.”

Utano concluded his remarks by saying, the city board members should quit if the mayor doesn’t split the cost of the action plan with the state.

“If the mayor doesn’t want to pay his fair share, the city’s board members should just walk away and resign,” Utano said.

The MTA Action Plan draws heavily from the “Work Boots on the Ground” plan TWU Local 100 developed and shared with transit executives over the last several weeks.

Local 100 represents approximately 38,000 bus and subway workers employed by the MTA. The Action Plan includes hiring an additional 2,400 transit workers, bringing the number of Local 100 members working at the MTA to more than 40,000.

The total membership for Local 100, including bus operators at private school bus companies and bike-share workers, would rise to more than 45,000.