NYC Transit Workers on How to Get a Fighting Union

Transit Workers for a Fighting Union (TWFU) wants to thank Workers Vanguard for supporting us and giving us props during our recent election campaign in Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100. We were running for executive board in two divisions and garnered 79 votes (10 percent of votes cast) for Richard Lattanzi in the Train Operators section and 47 votes (17 percent of votes cast) for Tom Cowperthwaite in the Brooklyn bus maintenance division. Although these numbers are modest, our campaign’s five-point program was distributed widely and resonated deeply with a layer of transit workers. We planted our flag as the only openly socialist candidates and had a real impact that the TWFU will be carrying forward.

As our name makes clear, we want to transform Local 100 into a fighting union, one that can secure real gains for NYC transit workers and advance the interests of the entire working class. During the months-long campaign, we went straight up against Local 100’s entrenched sellout bureaucracy headed by then-president Richard Davis and his “Members First” slate, which clearly felt threatened by TWFU and our program. Years of givebacks without any real struggle against the MTA bosses have left the union ranks disillusioned and demoralized. Barely 25 percent of the local’s over 40,000-strong membership even bothered to vote, which suited the widely despised incumbents just fine; they managed to win nearly every post.

The TWU tops are notorious for attacking their critics within Local 100 and for dirty electoral tricks to maintain themselves in power, such as tightly controlling every facet of union elections, disenfranchising sections of workers, harvesting votes and other maneuvers. In one indication of transit workers’ growing discontent, hundreds of oppositionists ran in the elections. The two most prominent slates challenging the incumbents were “Stronger Together” led by train operator Evangeline Byars and “Progressive Action” led by conductor Tramell Thompson. Both Byars and Thompson were repeatedly and grossly attacked by the TWU bureaucracy, as well as by MTA management, which recently demoted Byars to cleaner and last year outright fired Thompson. Against company attacks, TWFU absolutely defends them.

However, despite some militant posturing during the recent election, both “Stronger Together” and “Progressive Action” pushed the same tired program of lobbying Democratic and Republican politicians. This strategy has never resulted in any positive change for transit workers—Tier Six still stands, work conditions are as unsafe as ever and we cannot afford to live in the city where we work. Thompson is known for having stridently supported Donald Trump. (And now having won the VP spot in his strategic subway division, he is working harmoniously alongside Local 100 sellouts whom he used to sharply criticize daily.) For her part, last year Byars pushed Governor Hochul to flood the subways with cops and lately has been seeking Labor Department intervention to oversee new Local 100 elections.

TWFU stands apart. We waged our campaign by engaging transit workers on key industrial and political demands to rally our union in struggle against the MTA bosses. Along with fighting for much higher base pay, for workers control of safety and against all tiers, TWFU was known for highlighting the struggle for black liberation and defense of immigrants. This proved to be our most controversial point, as some right-wingers disagreed and others felt those demands were divisive or a cynical ploy to get “the black vote.” The right-wingers and liberals are essentially in agreement to leave the status quo untouched. In contrast, we in the TWFU understand that the only way to make the TWU stronger and advance the cause of the American working class is to actively fight against racial oppression, which the bosses use to keep us divided and weak.

With its predominantly black and immigrant workforce and multiracial ridership, the MTA runs the subway and bus system like a plantation. Our low pay and horrible work conditions are also reflected in the decaying infrastructure and disregard for the riding public. Racial oppression leaves not only black people at the bottom, but all other workers worse off. That’s why we explain that it is in the direct interest of white workers to fight for black liberation side by side with their union brothers and sisters of all backgrounds. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the need to defend immigrants was posed directly as a matter of defending our union. Hundreds of recent immigrants were brought in to sanitize subway cars for low pay and with no union protection whatsoever, threatening hard-won union gains and the union shop. What was needed was to organize these fellow workers into TWU Local 100 with full union pay, benefits and protections, which would have strengthened our union and our bargaining power. Today, TWFU fights for union action to defend immigrants against I.C.E. raids and deportations.

Local 100’s former President Davis won the election in December, only to be ousted in January amid accusations of sexual impropriety. For the third time in recent years, TWU officials then bypassed the membership and crowned one of their cronies, John Chiarello, as the new local president. You can’t make this stuff up! We in TWFU opposed these bureaucratic measures and fought for an immediate mass meeting of the entire union, where rank-and-file members could actually debate and organize the way forward. We hope that readers of Workers Vanguard will be interested in our leaflet motivating this course of action.

We transit workers show up to work every day facing horrible work conditions. There are two Houses of Pain: The MAC and 2 Broadway. The threat of write-ups and management harassment make every day miserable. It’s impossible to pay the bills unless you work massive amounts of overtime. It’s always service over safety. You work until you drop and then run the gauntlet by trying to get workmen’s comp. The list goes on. The problem is not just that we work for transit’s brutal bosses, but also that the union leadership lets them get away with it.

The TWU tops do this because they work hand-in-hand with the MTA and the politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, to maintain business as usual and to ensure their own power and privileges. That is their only strategy and why working conditions are so bad, the union is so weak, and transit workers are so demoralized. Clearly we need a new leadership, but not just any new leadership, we need one committed to building a strong union that fights against the MTA to improve our jobs and our lives.

We can’t let TWU International president John Samuelsen get away with handpicking another one of his cronies to run Local 100. As soon as possible, there should be a real mass meeting of the entire membership to organize new elections for all top posts. Real union democracy is vital for our 44,000-strong union to debate the way forward and engage in real struggle. Transit Workers for a Fighting Union advocates this, not because we want democracy in the abstract, but because we want a union that defends our livelihoods. To free our union from the bureaucrats’ stranglehold, we must challenge their losing strategy. As our flier stated during the recent election, we want TWU Local 100 to fight for:

• We Move New York! We should be able to afford to live here!
• Abolish Tier 6! Everyone to top tier now!
• We shouldn’t have to kill ourselves to do our jobs!
• For black liberation! Down with witchhunts against migrants and refugees!
• Oppose the Democrats and Republicans! Workers should run the country!

The purpose of new elections has to be to get the union off of its knees. Beware Local 100 oppositionists who call for the Department of Labor to oversee new elections. This would only leave our union under the thumb of an agency of the bosses’ government and stifle our collective struggle. We must run our own affairs and oppose government intervention. Local 100 members need a different path from that offered by Samuelsen and his gang, not more cause for demoralization.

Let’s get real, tougher times are ahead. The pro-business methods of the existing union leadership are a dead end. If you want to fight to rebuild our union and prepare for the struggles ahead, join us!