BEWARE UNBORN

What does John have to hide? What secret deals did he make with Walder?

Rumor has it that he's already made a deal to sell out the new hires, what will it be?

A stretch out of the wage progression?

Two tier wages?

A tier 5 pension?

Stay tuned to see if John has sold out one or more of these, or if there are even more sellouts besides these.

If you have friends or relatives who are thinking of coming to Transit tell them to try and get in fast before the Samulsen crew sells their job out!

-one2watch-

The Master of self promotion

John said our union didn't need a professional media relations firm, and, as far as he's concerned he was right!

He's doing a great job of self promotion all by himself!
He's turning our union's website into another chance for him to get photo ops.
Go to the Local 100 website and the first thing you see is John's face but not much more then that because his empty quotes and inane comments are an even bigger embarrassment then his photo.

Members should check it out if they want a good laugh, unfortunately, management is laughing at this clown too!

-proudCTA-

IT TAKES TWO BABY

It looks like Izzy Rivera, Benita Johnson, Angel Giboyeaux, have all been shelved!


There are now only two votes that count in our union, Samulsen's and Utano's. The real leadership is this "top two". The members elected Izzy, Benita and Angel, but Samulsen has bypassed them and handpicked Tony Utano as his number two.

Samulsen and Utano are having high level meetings without Izzy, Benita and Angel even being told, let alone consulted.

Samulsen and Utano are calling all the shots and making all the decisions, Izzy, Benita and Angel have nothing to say, at least nothing that John and Tony think they have to listen to.

-MOWorker86-

QUIET LEE

   Lee Ireland you are being very quiet. We the membership received so much literature from you when you were campaigning, where's the information now that you are elected.

   Lee Ireland you wrote in your newsletter and I quote, because I saved them all .....”There should be a membership clause in the TWU Local 100 bylaw book that prevents the President from offering and the Executive Board Members from accepting Union Staff Positions. It is a total CONFLICT OF INTEREST and it is CORRUPTING OUR UNION. I love and support our Union, but I also want to fix what is WRONG.”

  Lee have you typed up this motion to present to the President and the Executive Board yet?

  Lee you also wrote and I quote again.....”The Executive Board Members (always a minority) that would like to report to their respective divisions before they vote are not given the opportunity to do so. This is because they don't find out what they're voting on until the day of the Executive Board Meeting with the President”.

  Lee, have you typed up this motion to present to the President and the Executive Board yet?

  Lee, you said you had a bad dream and now you woke up. I say now that you are woke and elected.... step up, man up and speak up. We haven't heard from you.

 -itsoverin2012-

Watch your Back around John

   Some of us have been meeting. We hear others have and are talking about what has been going on at the hall concerning the Local; a lot of it is about the things that were said by John Samuelsen at the last meeting of our Executive Board. Especially the things that he set other people up to say.


   They made the atmosphere rotten, filled with suspicion he made ugly allegations and half allegations. Next thing you know, within a few days of the meeting, that’s what ends up in the News papers and even the TV. Making Local 100 look like s---t.

   Now, John has told some people that it was Izzy Rivera behind it, not him, but that’s not what we heard at the Executive Board with our own ears. “It wasn’t me” is as lame as it gets. Anyway he is the president, it’s his watch, that’s where the buck stops and he should own up to it if he hopes to have anyone’s trust and respect. Otherwise everyone should watch their backs around him.

Ex Board Member

Samuelsen: Spotted In the ‘President Protection Program

Finally! After a month Samuelsen finally scheduled a Staff meeting. This was his opportunity to look everyone in the eye and make us believe. And what did he do? He played hooky. He was a no show. He had more important things to do.


You see everyone knows that all the talk in the news about unity, about being fair and about how being tolerant of people that don’t see things his way is a allot of baloney. People being fired for no apparent reason other than they were on some blacklist he had.

His “security” has been monitoring staff – even elected officers, people have been followed around the hall and phones and computers are being monitored. In fact Samuelsen’s own people have admitted this.

Now we hear that he ran from holding a mass membership meeting. He has better things to do than meet with the staff serving the members. But he never misses a photo op.

NO SERVICE !!!

I am a cleaner who works nights.
I had some static from a supervisor who wasn't my usual supervisor, a week and a half ago.
I called 66-3578 and 66-3580 expecting to reach the union (I have called these numbers a few times over the last few years). I’ve also passed them on to several co-workers who have called them.
When in the past we called someone from the union someone has always answered, given us advice and information sometimes they have come out into the field to deal with supervision.
This time, there was no answer, of course. I’m aware there has been a change in the union but I thought it wouldn't affect the level of service we're use to getting.
I guess I thought wrong. My curiosity got to me so I've called once or twice a night since and no one answers.
With the Samuelsen crowd in power is stuff like this going to be par for the course?
May the good Lord will help us to get through these three years.

A night CTA

Amnesty for all

Samuelsen has given all members in bad standing unofficial amnesty.


1. He hires staff that could not run for top office because they didn’t pay their dues.

(Francis has been appointed the new chair of the election committee, and Marvin Holland is now political director)

2. He stopped all dues checking at all special events and division meetings at the hall, allowing all non dues paying members complete access to our Union Hall.

3. Now has the AM NY reporter quote non dues paying members (Norman Pou) in the story that bashes the union see article in the Feb. 10th edition.
What’s next?

-itsoverin2012-

Missing in action

Sure we have heard Samuelsen on the radio. He has even showed up at a couple of division meetings, but, what about the field?


Samuelsen has had press conferences and spoke at events yet not visited any locations.

Could it be he is scared of the members or is it simply that we don’t matter to him?

Last year we saw rallies upon rallies about our contract, plenty of media coverage, and the pressure was on “WHAT HAPPENED”? Why are we not doing this?

John if you can’t rally all of TWU maybe you can bring your followers (paid staff) and fight for the members instead of some prior administration.

-proudCTA-

Samulsen and company are in an 'email panic'!

They're so afraid of any discussion of issues affecting our union that they are trying to disrupt and silence this discussion by various fraudulent means.


This just follows up on the illegal electronic snooping and spamming that Samulsen and company have been doing. In fact, word from the hall is specific assignments have been given out along these lines.

It seems that Samuelsen, "Mr. trade union democrat", wants to decide what democratic discussion to allow and what to disrupt. All this comes at the same time that he is trying to silence elected officers who didn't run with his team by shutting them out of meetings and making deals behind their backs.

That's "democracy", Samuelsen style!

_MOWorker86-

Job Fair?

Besides rewarding non dues payers, and taking up space by non TWU members the MLK event was a job fair. Attended by every do nothing parasite who came around to sniff for a job.

Who will save us from the likes of this?

-MOWorker86-

Aiding and Abetting Anti Union Attacks

  How can one figure that certain elements in our union are helping the anti labor press attack our union. It all could be a set up, an excuse to abandon all of the new programs that benefit the majority of the members.

   After all, organizing and pulling off these events takes real work and we already know that's something that folks around the hall no longer think that they have to do.


   Think of it, the more spent on members the less they have to spend on themselves!

   Spending the money on the members. This must be a novel idea to these people.

Seriously speaking aiding and abetting anti union attacks is a threat to our union and to the entire labor movement, this has got to be stopped, fast!

-MOWorker86-

The Gospel according to John: “BOYCOTT”

Who will deny that a boycott of Family Day was organized by various individuals who actively told members to NOT attend Family Day.

This was consistent with their behavior on the Dues, Track safety, mobilizations, etc

                                              ACTIVE BOYCOTT

Their thinking is that anything that hurts Local 100 and makes the Union look bad hurts the administration.

These same characters are now asking members to believe that they are interested in uniting our Union.

Why Attack Family Day? Why Drag Local 100 through the mud?

Before 2001 we didn’t have a Family day each year at Local 100.

We also did not have: Dr. Martin Luther King Day; Black History Month celebration; Women’s Day; Irish (Quill Connelly) Day; Veteran’s Day; Lobby Day; Hispanic Day: Indian Day; West Indian American Day Parade; African American Day Parade; Italian Day; Russian Day; Widows &Orphans Fundraiser; Annual Mass Membership meetings etc…

Also, we did not have a Child Care Fund; a Training & Upgrade Fund or a Membership Services Department.

All of these help connect the members to Local 100.

Somewhere among these choices is something that works for most members and this wasn’t there before.

That’s a good thing.

So why is Samuelsen taking aim at membership events to push his personal agenda?

High Paying Paper Route

The GOON squad has finally appeared on the night shift. We knew Samuelsens private security were intimidating staff at the hall but now we know they are also delivering the AM New York around the system while earning union pay.


Stacks of this newspaper were delivered quietly early Friday morning (hopefully not on overtime) to Shops and Depots simply because it printed a negative take on our Family Day.

Members responded by questioning Samuelsens dedication to truly unite the Local.

One subway maintainer said “what about our contract and when is the Mass Membership meeting” while a bus operator noted that his family had a great time at Great Adventure and wanted to know why the new administration would attack that.

After so many years of having a union that lacked benefits for members that weren’t in trouble, one has to wonder why Samuelsen would attack positive programs. When will Samuelsen attack the rest of our positive programs?

No information, No appearances, and No communications yet we get papers delivered attacking our union.

We deserve better.

Management is on the attack!

Seniority is being threatened all over- Samuelsen and company are unable or unwilling to respond.

Management used to be afraid of our leadership - now they are laughing at it.

Buyers regret is setting in big time.

Will we have to suffer this disaster for 3 years or will someone step in to rescue us.

It's only three weeks and things are already falling apart! If this goes on for 3 years there will be nothing left to save! Is there anybody who can save us right now?

-Submitted by proudCTA-

Come Clean John !!!

An MTA boss once gave his idea of how to conduct union business. This boss said that union leaders need to raise a big ruckus on the shop floor, were the members can see and hear them, but afterwards they should go into the boss’s office and make a deal.


It looks like Samuelsen has taken a page out of this play book. He spouts "direct action" and militancy in his public statements and then goes into secret closed door meetings with the MTA brass and makes deals behind our backs.

Members want to know - what has John given away or who did he sell out; Conductors? Station Agents? New hires? Retirees? Our contract? Our pensions? Our benefits? Just what did he give away in those closed door meetings!

We were promised direct action meanwhile we're getting sold out in secret meetings.

-Submitted by MOWorker86-

Thanks John

Today’s AM New York carried a front page story about the $2 million cost for Family Day.

The reporter was sent a Local 100 financial report that even the Executive Board has neither discussed nor seen.

What the article doesn't mention is :

• The Local got back $½ million so far

• That it was reported to the Executive Board, and the monthly reports to the Board tracked the costs

• That we paid the going rate for a Great Adventure exclusive where the entire park is shut down and reserved for Transit Workers.

• No hint of wrong doing (as usual)

The entire article downplays that the cost includes the cost for three family days, including 2010 and whatever returns come back from that.

The article is mostly an anti-TWU, anti-Union, and anti-labor message to New Yorkers.

Thanks John

This is another loser

Loser Francis, was taken off the slate because he was in bad standing, and now John Samuelsen named him the new Chair of the Elections Committee.

That was Monday January 25th.

By Wednesday January 27th a flyer with Samuelsen’s and Francis’s pictures were put in Grand Avenue Depot endorsing a slate in the Section Elections there!!!

Samuelsen is the all time Champion of democracy and unbiased fair play.

We are in real good hands with this crook.

-Submitted by Local 100 Bus Operator-

Samuelsen afraid to face us

Word is that Samuelsen and company have decided to postpone our mass membership meeting.

Why is Samuelsen afraid to face us? Why won't he tell the membership what the plans are for our union in 2010?

Is it because he doesn’t want to have to explain what he gave away in closed door meetings he had behind our backs with MTA boss Walder? Or, is it just because Samuelsen has no vision for 2010?

There are a lot of attacks coming down right now; lousy picks, with holding of raises, threatened layoffs, threats to pensions and benefits, threats of OPTO. We want to know what the plans are to fight all this. But it looks like Samuelsen has nothing to say!

When he was running for office John said that we should fight the MTA with direct action. Now the members want to know, what are the plans for direct action? What does he suggest we do? At one time John suggested slowdowns, if this is now the plan now why doesn’t he want to hold a meeting to let us know.

Postponement of the meeting will cost our union a lot of money. John has two months to plan for the meeting, that's plenty of time. Why won't he face us? Maybe it's that he just has nothing to say or maybe he doesn’t dare let us know what he and Walder have done behind our backs!

Submitted by MOWorker86