TWU Local 100 and the International have secured hundreds of additional jobs for TWU members in the next capital plan.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has committed to hiring 300 additional NYC transit workers to help carry out the critically important state-of-good-repair tasks listed in the 2025-2029 Capital Plan.
This is a direct result of Local 100 and the International working hand-in-hand in Albany to get key members of the state Assembly and Senate to support our efforts to have more capital work assigned to the in-house TWU workforce.
“This is COPE in action. Voluntary contributions from members enable the International and Local to educate and lobby elected officials and support those who support us,” said TWU International President John Samuelsen. “This is a big victory for the Local, the International, and riders. Now we will press New York to fully fund the Capital Plan.”
“We successfully made the case that work done by TWU members is of higher quality, more cost-effective, and is completed more quickly than projects given to private contractors,” Local 100 President John Chiarello said.
The capital plan includes new and upgraded infrastructure with projects that include station rehabilitations, track replacement, and installation of new signals.
“We fully support this capital plan and want to see it funded and implemented,” Chiarello. “It’s essential in order to have a safe and reliable system, and to avoid slipping backward to the bad old days of rampant break downs and delays.”
Speaking at an MTA committee meeting on Monday, March 24, 2025, David Solomon, who heads the MTA’s facilities group, noted that $6 Billion is currently budgeted for capital work within the 2025 to 2029 budget would go to in-house workers. He said in-house forces sometimes provide more “flexibility and technical expertise” than private contractors. Using in-house workers will generate millions of dollars of taxpayer savings, he said.