Hispanic Heritage Celebration an Opportunity for Solidarity

SEPTEMBER 29—Local 100 celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month at The Hudson event venue in Upper Manhattan Friday with live music, great food, dancing and our own TA Surface VP Gary Rosario's salsa band.

Union leadership, including International President John Samuelsen and Local 100 President Chiarello, were on hand, with Samuelsen emphasizing unity going into next year's contract fight and the support of our brother and sister transit workers across America.

Chiarello spoke about the importance of TWU Local 100’s solidarity in the face of ongoing threats to labor.

"The most important thing is us coming together to understand how to fight for a contract. If you look at the political climate we’re in now, they’re decimating unions. They lost nearly a million union jobs in the federal government. We have to go forward and fight for what we have."

Both Secretary-Treasurer Carlos Bernabel and Adminstrative VP Alexander Kemp also spoke at the event.

TA Surface Maintenance Chair Danny Ascona received this year's Nelson Rivera award, which annually recognizes an outstanding unionist who has contributed "to the cause of labor."

State Senator Natalia Fernandez, a member of the Labor and Transportation Committees of the State Legislators, told the crowd she would fight to oppose self-driving vehicles that might threaten union jobs.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez was honored with a recognition award, with Brother Kemp saying that he is "a real partner of labor.” Gonzalez noted that his father had been a union member for 34 years and saluted the work of Local 100 members at Ground Zero during 9/11.

Hispanic Heritage Day 2025