Hey, remember Roger Toussaint? He was the president of the Transit Workers Union Local 100 who made the decision to lead its members on a two-and-a-half day transit strike in 2005. More recently he's been vice president in charge of strategic planning at TWU, but now the Daily News reports he was at the MTA's Brooklyn office to be "reinstated as a track workers... [He] filed paperwork and took a physical required of any employee seeking to return after an extended absence, sources said." And when told of the news, a TWU official said, "Holy s---." more ›

The MTA's financial problems are well-known, so naturally it would want to take a tough line with the transit union, TWU Local 100. And naturally the union isn't happy with no raises for its 34,000 members, so its contract expired at midnight on Sunday without any resolution. However, the two sides are kindly continuing negotiations so we won't have to deal with a transit strike. more ›

Welcome to the MTA, John Lhota—now deal with the union! The MTA's new chairman only just started his job yesterday and already he is being thrown into the fire. Nearly six years after the Transit Workers Union struck and ground the city to a halt for three days negotiations for a new worker's union have begun. Luckily, one of the first things Lhota has done to differentiate himself from his predecessor, Jay Walder, is start buddying up with the union. more ›

Today, over 200 MTA workers are turning in their work badges to comply with the agency's layoffs. The Transit Workers Union, which is planning a mass protest today, says that 202 workers are turning in their IDs today (WABC 7 reports 194 are station agents). The MTA issued the layoffs to deal with its huge deficit. TWU president John Samuelson told NY1, "Our members that lost their health insurance, we just came up with a plan within ourselves and we all kicked in $10 a pay period just to keep our 3,500 members that are laid off with health insurance all right. It shows you the fortitude of our membership and it was done in a very quick motion." more ›

Last month, it was reported that MTA Chairman Jay Walder had purchased a $1.6 million condo at Central Park West and 96th Street. The three-bedroom abode is near five subways (the B/C and 1/2/3), not to mention a number of buses, which makes it easy for Transit Workers Union members to protest! TWU Local 100 president John Samuelson told the Daily News that Walder's pricey home, high salary and vacation home in France "demonstrates he's a rich elitist completely out of touch with New York City transit workers and riders." more ›

Unsurprisingly, transit employees have joined the movement of opposition to student MetroCard elimination, just one of the many cuts threatening their mother company, the MTA. "The City of New York has a responsibility to ensure that our children have the means to get to school," the Transport Workers Union's president said Sunday. Union members signed a petition, urging the DOE to increase its efforts to save the student fares by putting pressure on the state to restore funding, reports the News. This year, NY state cut its contribution from $45 million to $6 million, a fraction of the $214 million the MTA spends on free cards for kids annually. Still, a spokesman for Bloomberg says he's committed to keeping them. "The city has been doing its part that the program stays in place," he said. more ›

After rumors that the Transit Workers Union would "slow it down"—it being subway and bus service—yesterday during its "Day of Outrage," the jury is out on whether or not service was truly affected. One reader described, "The worst B/Q train service I can remember. Waited 20 minutes this morning, and the train was too packed to fit on. When another one finally arrived, it went half speed the entire way into Manhattan," yet another who must have slipped into a Bizarro dimension said, "My service this morning was actually noticably better than it usually is (on the F)"? more ›

Did your subway or bus commute seem a little slower than usual today? It's possible there really wasn't "train traffic up ahead"—apparently the Transit Workers Union wants to give the MTA (and riders) hell because the agency won't pay arbitrator-decided raises. And a text message last week suggested that workers were advised to "slow it down" today. more ›

On Monday, an arbitrator ruled transit workers could receive "four percent raises in each of the first two years of their contract; three percent in the third year -- far more than the MTA had budgeted for," according to NY1. Additionally, the MTA lost its bid to reduce the number of train operators aboard subway to just one (from two)—the Post says the Transit Workers Union "demanded a slew of outrageous perks to strong-arm the MTA into killing a plan that would have saved the cash-strapped agency $12 million," asking that if there was just a single operator, then the "lone operators get $2-an-hour pay hikes and that the conductors whose positions were eliminated simply get shifted to other lines," so the MTA decided not to pursue the single operator negotiation. TWU president Roger Toussaint denied that he made demands, instead saying, "This is plainly not true, and they know it. This was an exercise of incompetence at the highest level by [MTA director of labor relations] Ben Fernandez and [interim MTA CEO] Helena Williams, which they are now trying to cover up." And the Post's editorial board seems to agree, wondering if the MTA had planned this all along. more ›

The Daily News reports that the MTA has been meeting with the Transit Workers Union, "holding secret negotiations to hammer out a contract months ahead of schedule - and without the usual rancor." Nice, as we all remember what rancor and a lack of a contract meant last time: A three-day transit strike without subway and bus service--the exercise was good. more ›

Subway conductors no longer have to hype the Top of the Rock observation deck when they pull into Manhattan's 47-50 Streets Rockefeller Center Station. Back in October 2006, we wrote how conductors had been instructed to append the attraction "Top of the Rock" to the actual station name. An MTA sokesman said the announcement was just a courtesy to let riders know about the attraction, but the co-owners of Rockefeller Center, Tishman-Speyer, decided to remain mum on the announcements. more ›

MTA Chairman Peter S. Kalikow announced that he is stepping down from his position as chairman of the MTA. Kalikow, who was appointed by then Governor George Pataki back in 2001, was reappointed to a 6-year term last summer, which suggested there might be battles ahead between him and new governor Eliot Spitzer. But at the end of 2006, Kalikow said he would step down during the second quarter of this year, after finishing up some projects, like the Second Avenue Subway. Here are some quotes from the MTA press release:

“I am a firm believer in setting aggressive goals, accomplishing those goals and then giving others the opportunity to both expand upon those initiatives and create new ones with fresh vision and new energy,” said Kalikow. “As both a longtime public servant and an avid supporter of term limits as a means to maintain healthy and effective government leadership, I believe the public will be best served by my decision.” more ›

The NYC Transit Authority, a division of the MTA, resumed all subway track and tunnel work starting today. All non-essential work was stopped after the second transit worker death in five days occurred on Sunday. more ›

After two transit-worker deaths in five days, NYC Transit Authority President Howard Roberts wrote what the NY Times called an "emotional letter" to the thousands of transit workers.

Referring to his 20-year career in the United States Army, the transit president, Howard H. Roberts Jr., recalled the time he served as a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division, where staying alive was a matter of following safety rules. more ›

The NYC Transit Authority continued its investigation of Sunday's fatal accident involving a track worker and an oncoming G train. "Non-essential" track work has been suspended as the agency looks at its safety protocol. NYC Transit Authority president Howard Roberts suggested work should have been suspended earlier, given that another transit worker was killed last week, "If I had any idea we would be here this afternoon on this subject, clearly we would have started the process we are in now last week." more ›

A subway transit worker was killed and another was seriously injured when a G train hit them at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station yesterday afternoon. It seems that Marvin Franklin, a 22-year-veteran, was fatally hit when he and 37-year-old Jeffrey Hill went to pick up a dolly on another track. The G train's operator did see the men, but could not brake in time; Franklin was dragged by the train, while Hill was hit but is now in stable condition at Bellevue. From the Daily News:

The ill-fated workers were performing maintenance jobs in the station while the busy A and C lines were shut down for major track work. more ›

The next mayoral election may be more than two years off, but it's never too soon to start courting the union vote, especially when it's the Transit Workers Union. The men and women who make sure the trains run on time have the ability to derail any politician's campaign, so Democratic hopefuls took turns addressing the rank and file at a TWU "Save Our Union" meeting yesterday. more ›

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Yesterday, thousands of people walked down Fifth Avenue in to protest a police shooting against three unarmed men. Sean Bell was shot to death just hours before his wedding while his two friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, were wounded in a barrage of 50 bullets in less than a minute; undercover police claimed they saw a fourth man with a gun. more ›

What a way to (almost) end 2006 - with an arbitrator making a decision about the MTA's transit workers' contract! And the decision is pretty anti-climactic - it's basically the deal that ended the strike last year, though it was later rejected by the Transit Workers Union, then passed but then denied by the MTA. Anyway, arbitrator George Nicolau said the deal was "the most just and reasonable" solution. From the AP:

Both the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its foil, Transport Workers Union Local 100, hailed the decision as a triumph -- then needled each other. more ›

A 20-year veteran transit worker was clipped by a Q train yesterday around noon. Fifty-five year old Yakov Tesenter was near the Avenue U stop in Brooklyn on the Q. He was part of a team inspecting switches for repair, when he somehow got separated from the group. amNY reports that investigators are looking into whether the "flag man, who alerts oncoming trains that work crews are present," was at his post. more ›

Whoa, is this an early holiday present to Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer? Or is this a fake-out to appease him for now? MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow told a state Assembly oversight hearing that he'll leave office "sometime in the second quarter": "There are things that I want to get finished. When they are finished I would like to resign." Those things being getting funding for the Second Avenue Subway and other capital projects secured. more ›

MTA executive Gary Dellaverson has had some explaining to do. Last week, when discussing the possibility of a Metro-North strike, the MTA's labor negotiator told Metro, "Negotiation is about compromise," before joking about "putting needles in my Roger Toussaint doll." Oh, dear. more ›

Huh. Transit Workers Union president Roger Toussaint tells the Daily News that he had a "secret deal with the MTA really ended the walkout." Toussaint faces re-election to be TWU president this month and has been criticized by opponents for ending the strike before getting a contract. So we think it's pretty convenient for Toussaint to tell all now. From the Daily News:

Toussaint said he kept the original pact secret because of the highly charged atmosphere: Gov. Pataki had insisted on the second day of the strike that the MTA wouldn't negotiate while workers were still walking picket lines. more ›

Last week, amNew York reported on Transit Workers Union president Roger Toussaint's ploy to raise re-election funds by selling various wares, including autographed pictures. Toussaint, though, wanted to dispute the public perception of him in the article, which had quotes from commuters outside of Penn Station. From today's AMNY:

So the Trinidad-native challenged amNewYork to walk the streets with him on his turf -- working class, outer borough neighborhoods. The cheers from working men and women, he predicted, would far outweigh the jeers. He allowed amNewYork to pick the neighborhoods. more ›

) and the piece de resistance, autographed photographs of Toussaint during last December's transit strike ($2). more ›

Well, looks who is Mr. Helpful all of a sudden: MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow is opposed to service cuts the MTA was planning to consider in its budget. The service cuts, which were reported yesterday in the NY Times, would have been extensive, piling on many minutes of waiting time for subways and buses as service. Critics - including our readers - freaked out, and especially considering plans to increase the subway and bus fare by 5%. Yesterday Kalikow said:

“What I’m doing, officially, is letting New York City Transit know that the M.T.A. board, which runs New York City Transit, does not want a fare increase or service cuts and they need to find other things to do, if necessary. Those two things are not things we’re going to be interested in.... more ›

The Transit Workers Union is set to vote on its leadership this fall, and a group of members wants to oust current president Roger Toussaint. Yesterday, the Daily News reported that bus driver (and the chairman of the local's Manhattan and Bronx division) Barry Roberts, track division chairman John Samuelsen and conductor Nat Cummings are running together. Roberts said of Toussaint, "He destroyed the workers' morale." Roberts also said many workers would have wanted to negotiate with the MTA, versus striking last December. Hindsight is always 20/20, but given that the TWU still doesn't have a contract, we imagine the TWU membership might want some new blood. more ›

It's been three months since the transit strike and still the MTA and Transit Workers Union Local 100 don't have a new contract. So nobody should be too surprised that the New York State Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) decided today that the two have to go into binding arbitration where "a three-member panel will essentially dictate the terms of a new contract." more ›