The story reads like a Bruce Springsteen song: hardworking Americans sent to fight for their country, only to come back and find they don't have jobs. That happened to Sgts. Alvin Taylor and Anddy (Angel) Moreno, who both lost their jobs as bus drivers when the MTA began downsizing. TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen called the layoffs "despicable." He told the Daily News, "[The MTA] should honor their military service and not lay them off."
Taylor, born in Trinidad and Tobago, joined the Army Reserves as "payback to Uncle Sam for allowing me to stay in the country legally." He was sent to Afghanistan in February, but said, "I was guaranteed [by supervisors] my job would be there when I got back." Moreno, a father of five, was laid off from his job as a Bx55 driver. He is currently serving in Kuwait, and his sister said, "Now he has a lot to worry about, knowing he's not going to have a job to support his family when he gets back."
Federal law guarantees members of the military may return to their civilian jobs after they've been deployed, but it doesn't protect workers who are laid off when the company downsizes or shuts down. Under the TWU contract, Taylor and Moreno were at the top of the layoff list since they had held the jobs for the least amount of time. An NYC Transit spokesman told the Daily News they were "reviewing the current situation" before the two are laid off this weekend.
