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STAND UP, LOCAL 100

Stand Up, Local 100

To the Editor:

In the July 13 edition of The Chief, an article was written about the commingling of TA and MaBSTOA bus maintainers at the Zerega Ave. bus maintenance facility in the Bronx. My vice president, Stephan Thomas (TA Surface) either lied to this paper when he said he "did not know anything about the seniority issues at the Zerega Ave. facility" or hasn't been paying attention.

When you mix two groups of workers with different seniority and work rules into a facility overseen by a union rep looking out for his own voting members, you end up with a mess. This issue in the Bronx along with consolidated or regional bus has been going on for years.

Roger Toussaint told us he needed regional bus six years ago to save our health benefit trust. My division chair, J.P. Patafio, was against it but caved in to pressure by Toussaint and Ed Watt instead of standing up for the bus operators he was elected to protect. Patafio foolishly agreed to back a contract which had a clause that gave the TA "the free movement of equipment and personnel."

Any Bus Operator who has been around for a while knows that the more the Transit Authority controls schedules, the worse they become. Toussaint and Patafio are the same people who went crazy when the last Willie James contract had a 90-day window of opportunity to discuss regional bus. With the exception of a few months after New Directions came to power, the division slate for bus operators has been run by two Roger loyalists: Thomas and Patafio.

Unless these two union reps get some courage and learn to stand up to Toussaint and the Transit Authority, we will have Bus Operators bearing the brunt of sacrifice with deteriorating schedules and work rules.

TOMMY McNALLY, Bus Operator, Ulmer Park Depot