Statement from LES Chair John Chiarello

Fellow Signal Maintainers and Helpers,

The documents posted at http://www.twulocal100.org/content/signals-job-pick-2012 represent the final agreed-upon Signal Job pick. Please throw away anything else you have received to prevent confusion.

The team of Duvet Williams, Bobby Mallon, Frank Tarulli, Dominick Spagnolo (retired), Eric lamanno, Sham Narian, Isak Drober and myself worked more than 3 weeks in heated negotiation with Signal Management. We presented many different arguments to win jobs back and worked vigorously to restore the 215st shop back to where it was, and to maintain the RDOs and seniority rights across all three sections: IND, BMT and IRT.

I would also like to address a persistent rumor that the union signs off on the pick. As you can see in all the accompanying documents, there is no signature from the union, only a signature from Signal Management. The only thing that can stop or postpone a pick is health and safety issues or a clear violation of seniority rights. In the pick I present to you there is none of that. Just hard work and your union fighting tooth and nail for every job, both Signal Maintainer and Helper.

I would also like to thank every member who signed the petition to protect our RDOs and respect our seniority rights. There were more than 800 signatures collected by volunteer Shop Stewards and rank and file members, truly a grassroots campaign. I believe this was the pivotal part that brought Signal management back to the table to negotiate and make many significant changes to our job pick.

I expect the road ahead to be very rough but with member support we can fight back and maintain respect and dignity for our jobs and for our future. Thank you for your support. Let’s start preparing for the next pick because management already is. TWU local 100 is only as strong as our weakest link, so when the Union says to mobilize, you must respond. I would also like to thank our President John Samuelsen and MOW VP Tony Utano, whose support and advice were critical in this negotiation.

Fraternally,
John Chiarello
Chair, Line Equipment & Signal Division