ICYMI: John Samuelsen Rips NYC Congestion Pricing Debacle
TWU International President John Samuelsen ripped New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s congestion pricing debacle and was quoted extensively in New York and national media outlets. Some highlights are below.
Please contact adaugherty@twu.org or pdonohue@twu.org if interested in interviewing President Samuelsen.
Samuelsen, who represents more than 40,000 NYC-area transit workers, resigned in protest from the board responsible for overseeing congestion pricing last year because the MTA failed to “meet the moment” by not expanding transit service for blue-collar New Yorkers.
Here are the highlights:
CNN: NY Gov Hochul delays controversial NYC congestion pricing plan ‘indefinitely’
John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union which represents many of the city’s transit workers accused Hochul of political malpractice, telling CNN Hochul bowed to pressure.
“This was going to be a disaster for Hochul at the ballot, and the plan is bleeding into the Dem’s efforts to take back the House,” Samuelsen told CNN.
New York Daily News: Hochul halts NYC congestion pricing in dramatic about-face
“I think this kills [congestion pricing] until after November,” said John Samuelsen, international head of the Transport Workers Union and an opponent of the congestion pricing plan.
Samuelsen, an early supporter of the program, was a member of the board that proposed the tolling structure before resigning the same day the board issued its recommendations.
Samuelsen has called for additional express bus routes and other service increases ahead of any tolling program, though MTA brass has said current bus service should suffice.
The union leader has called the congestion pricing plan unfair to working class New Yorkers.
“This is [MTA chairman] Janno Lieber’s ‘let the outer boroughs eat cake’ moment,” he said. The Governor’s decision to back the plan was “a total abrogation of Hochul’s responsibility to working class New Yorkers,” he said.
New York Post: Gov. Hochul ditches hated congestion pricing plan in stunning reversal over economic fears: ‘New Yorkers are struggling’
Transport Workers Union international president John Samuelsen, who also serves on the MTA board, suggested that the governor’s decision is a case of “I told you so.”
“I told the governor two years ago that if she imposed the congestion toll without increases in transit service, it would be a political disaster,” Samuelson scoffed.
The City NY: Hochul Hits Brakes on Congestion Pricing at Last Minute
Samuelsen has also repeatedly criticized Janno Lieber, the MTA chairperson and chief executive, over congestion pricing.
“It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out there would be political repercussions for the Democrats across New York State,” he said. “As it relates to the MTA, [Hochul] has let Janno lead her around like a stooge and he’s led her uphill into political gunfire.”
ABC 7: Congestion pricing halt prompts fallout, rally planned by TWU
The president of the transit workers union saying he warned the MTA it was not ready to impose congestion pricing.
“It was a betrayl of blue collar New York. This had to be accompanied by new service. It couldn’t just be accompanied by the slap of a toll and no added benefit for working people beyond what they already have,” John Samuelsen, President, TWU International, told Eyewitness News.
Another critic of the toll, International Transport Workers president John Samuelsen, who serves on the MTA board, also sounded off on the reversal.“I told the governor two years ago that if she imposed the congestion toll without increases in transit service it would be a political disaster,” Samuelsen said. “It’s like taxation without representation. She let [MTA CEO] Janno Lieber lead her around like a stooge.”
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The TWU represents more than 155,000 workers across the airline, railroad, transit, universities, utilities and service sectors. The TWU is the largest airline workers union in the United States.