Local 100’s mammoth grey blow-up rat loomed above thousands of angry Transportation Workers Union members who rallied outside of the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s headquarters on Wednesday evening to protest the Authority’s refusal to honor their awarded contract.

“No Contract, No Peace!” the crowd chanted. “What do we want? A contract! When do we want it? Now!”

Local 100 is fed up with the MTA and with Mayor Mike Bloomberg for trying to reverse an arbitrator’s contract award that granted MTA employees a well-deserved annual 4% hourly pay rate raise for the next three years. They expressed their anger at Bloomberg in a rally flier that portrays the Mayor proclaiming, “I don’t need NYC, NYC needs me!” and with chants like, “Hey Mike! Take a hike!”
Local 100 was in arbitration since January 2009 and reached an acceptable contract over the summer. However, with a total disregard for fairness and the term “binding,” the MTA has contested the new agreement and, with Bloomberg’s support, is asking the court to toss it out.

"They're very damned upset," said Acting President of Local 100 Curtis Tate of the rank-and-file. "It's 'damned if you do, damned if you don't.'"

“They act as if we don’t have family and as if we are not part of the city,” said Rhonda Edwards, a Local 100 member who attended Wednesday’s rally. “We are the same like the passengers in this economic situation. How am I going to feed and support my children as a single mother if the MTA steals my money?”

In recent years, the Bloomberg administration has granted a 4% annual pay increase for municipal workers in the NYPD, NYFD and the Sanitation Department. A Local 100 Bus Mechanic at the rally ranted that, “We are doing what we can to keep the city moving. We bring in a lot of money, like the other city workers, and we deserve the same [pay raises] to support our families.”

The MTA doesn’t believe that they need to follow the law, even after using it to wound the TWU in the past. Local 100 members at the rally expressed outrage at the MTA for brutally punishing the Union for the 2005 strike, and now failing to follow laws themselves. “We played by the rules by negotiating for seven months,” said a Local 100 member, “and this is what happens, they won’t even honor the awarded contract.”