TWU Activists Gird To Keep Weekend Day Off; A Strike Issue for Some
By ARI PAUL
Is being assured a day off on the weekend worth another transit strike? One Transport Workers Union Local 100 officer said yes last week, as rumors emerged that thousands of Maintenance of Way workers would be forced to have their two Regular Days-Off on weekdays.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow THE FOLKS WHO'LL BRING YOU THE WEEKEND: Transport Workers Union Local 100 rep Jack Blazejewicz, left, said schedules mandating that workers' two Regular Days-Off be during the normal business week would offset wage increases in the next contract and should be cause for a work stoppage.

The Local 100 Track Division held two meetings Aug. 27 to discuss the possibility of New York City Transit mandating that Track Workers and Track Inspectors give up weekend days as RDOs. Officers had also heard that the proposal could also affect workers in the Power and Line Equipment and Signal Divisions.

'Should Think About Striking'

"It's my position this is absolutely an issue that if they go to implement this, the union should think hard and long about going on strike," said Track Division Recording Secretary Jack Blazejewicz before the start of the day's second meeting at Local 100's Upper West Side headquarters. "If we get a slightly better raise of a few bucks for our families, what good is it if we don't have time to spend with them?"

Traditionally, MoW workers have had the option of having one day off during the week. Mr. Blazejewicz noted that in the Track Division, only about 50 members had two weekend days as RDOs.

'Not Going to Take It'

"We only have one day to spend with our families, now they want to take that away," he said, joined by other officers and members. "The stance of the Track Committee is that we're not going to stand by and allow it. We're going to do everything within our power to stop this from happening."

It is unclear to Track Division officers that such a proposal would violate the current contract, though they did say that contractually the union and management have to negotiate picks for jobs rather than having shifts imposed on workers. Track Division Vice Chair Eric Josephson said that while Local 100 MoW Vice President Charles Ayala opposed such a work proposal, the union leadership believed that "in general you cannot grieve something until it's been done to you."

Mr. Blazejewicz said after the meeting that Local 100 staff rep Leroy Jardim assured workers that union President Roger Toussaint opposed the implementation of the policy.

Local 100 officers had heard that NYC Transit wanted to increase track maintenance on the weekends so that work-week traffic would have fewer interruptions. Since two Track Workers died in the line of duty last April, NYC Transit has mandated several new work rules including increased flagging, which has moved some MoW workers away from actual maintenance to flag work.

"The on-time performance of trains has dropped," Mr. Blazejewicz said. "So someone came up with the idea of 'well, let's do more of the main on weekends instead.' The people making decisions were all home on weekends with their families. They're making decisions on all of us poor slobs who are out there busting our ass on the weekend. It's not the right thing to do."

Rules Take a 'Bite'

Track Division Chair Carlos Albert admitted that the new flagging rules had hampered train performance.

"It is taking a bite out of the workforce," he said.

NYC Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges said he was unaware of the plan and "even if I did I would not be discussing that with the media."

Workers and reps from other MoW divisions attended the Track meetings, with some fearing that the mandating of weekday RDOs could spread to their job titles. Mr. Blazejewicz insisted that workers outside of MoW would believe the issue was worth striking over because if the policy was successfully implemented in one part of the transit system, it would later be implemented in other parts.

Mr. Josephson noted that at the morning meeting, 30 Track Division members attended and expressed "extreme unhappiness" about the proposal.

"My hope would be that management already sees what an uproar they've caused and are backing off," he said.