TRANSPORT WORKERS UNION CHALLENGES NYPD

This information was sent to all Transport Workers Union Local 100 members:

TWU Local 100 is challenging the right of the MTA and the NY Police Dept. to force TWU bus drivers to drive MTA buses that were used to haul peaceful Wall Street protestors on the Brooklyn Bridge Saturday off to jail. We are seeking a court injunction against the practice.

Our members did not take this job just so they could drive the MTA-NYPD's makeshift paddy wagons. We won't do their dirty work! (Please remember Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima and countless others)

We support the first amendment rights of protestors because the system wants to crack-down on anyone who challenges the banks and Wall Street, including us! This opposition to poverty, war and joblessness is erupting all over the globe. The Wall Street youth are on the side of transit workers. They have welcomed us many, many times. Our Executive Board voted unanimously recently to support the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Our own TWU has been denied our human rights for decades, especially our right to strike. For asserting our rights as working people we were threatened and finally hit with massive fines by ex-Governor Eliot Spitzer (Dem), ex-Mayor Rudy Guiliani (Rep) and Mayor Bloomberg (Independent).

We are the first ones who should be stepping up to the plate on this one!

Through the court action described below we are building bridges between youth fighting for economic justice; the civil liberties communities; and the other unions that support the Wall Street protestors, such as the AFT, SEIU 1199, etc, who are also battling zeros and layoffs.