Justice for NYC transit workers

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Who keeps our subways and buses running? Not the high-paid executives of the MTA. Not the bankers who milk our transit system through huge interest payments.

No matter how early you go to work, you’ll find subway and bus drivers, conductors, token booth workers, cleanup and track personnel already on the job. These women and men work hard, around the clock, often in hazardous conditions and in all weather.

The MTA wants to cut out conductors and make "one-person" trains, endangering the safety of workers and the public. It wants to cut benefits for new hires. It is offering wages that lag behind inflation.

The workers have said, enough is enough! They face jail and fines if they strike for a decent contract.

They're ready to fight and have the power to shut the city down. It's a power they haven’t used in a long time. But the MTA may force them to do that or give up wages and health coverage and pensions that every worker deserves.

MTA has the money

No one wants to be inconvenienced. But think of it—this struggle will affect the workers of this city for years to come. Big business has been cutting away at wages and benefits, crying poverty. Poverty? Yes, there’s poverty all right, but not in the executive suites, not on Wall Street, not in the country club crowd. Their earnings are out of sight. And the MTA admits to having a $1-billion surplus!

But millions of workers can’t afford a doctor or medicine, can’t send their kids to college, can’t find decent, affordable housing, and are thousands of dollars in debt to credit card companies and banks. Most of them have no unions.

The transit workers have a union—Local 100 of the TWU. It has a proud history of fighting the rich and powerful.

The MTA says it won’t touch “one cent” of existing workers’ health care and pensions. But it wants to cut those benefits for all the new hires. The TWU members, voting democratically in mass rallies of thousands, have said NO.

Fighting for our future

The big bosses don’t care what kind of a world our children live in. They’re trying to impose a “two-tier” contract—lower pay and benefits for future employees. But the transit union is taking a stand for our sons and daughters.

Let them know you agree! Get involved in supporting these workers. They help you every day. Now they need your help so we all can have a better life.

Issued as a public service by:

Workers World Party
55 West 17th St., 5th floor
New York, NY 10011
Phone: (212) 255-0352
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.workers.org