On April 23 two thousand Local 100 members, other supportive unions and TWU International members and officers stood outside of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s headquarters and yelled “Hands Off Our Jobs!” Within two weeks the MTA loosened its grip on our union jobs and announced that current jobs were no longer in jeopardy.

TWU International President James C. Little told the crowd, “We are drawing the line against service cuts impacting our members and the service to those who need it the most.”

At the rally, Local 100 President Roger Toussaint made it clear that Albany needed to work with the desperately cash-strapped MTA to save members. “However they’re going to find the money, they’ve got to go find the money,” he said. “We need Albany to come through, and if the MTA needs to do some cuts, they should start lining up the managers and fire them.”

Local 100 fought in the state capital, in New York’s local media and on the streets for the safety of the public and the job security MTA employees deserve. On May 7 the Senate and Assembly passed a package of taxes and fees that is expected to generate $1.8 billion, all of which will go to the MTA. This will avert layoffs, prevent most service cuts and limit fare hikes a great victory for TWU.

The day before the bill was signed, Local 100 leaders, Acting President Curtis Tate, Administrative VP Barry Roberts and Station VP Andreeva Pinder met with Speaker Sheldon Silver, Sen. Majority Leader Malcolm Smith and Gov. David Paterson, while other VPs led teams that met with other key legislators. TWU extracted a promise from Albany that the bill would not be signed without the assurance that jobs would not be cut. The promise of no layoffs was formally acknowledged on May 11 by MTA Chief Financial Officer Gary Dellaverson at a meeting of the MTA Board of Directors.

The bill saves over 1,000 Local 100 members - Bus Operators, Maintainers and Station Agents - who were in jeopardy of losing their jobs, and will help ensure continued safety in New York’s subway stations and along its bus routes, which will benefit the public as well as MTA employees.

In addition to the rally and work in Albany, Local 100 also organized leafleting at key transportation hubs, demonstrations outside the offices of selected politicians and advertisements on the radio, in the press and on cable TV.

Now that the issues of layoffs and transportation service reductions have been settled, Local 100 is focusing on preventing the MTA from using attrition to cut service and endanger passenger safety in the name of economy.