Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

New York Taxi Workers Alliance Appeal For Funds For Cab Driver Ahmed Sharif Family Support Fund

http://www.nytwa.org/
Home
Ahmed Sharif Family Support Fund

Stabbed cabbie out of work, worries about feeding family (CNN)

On behalf of the Sharif family, we would like to express our gratitude for the heart-warming support from our fellow New Yorkers and to our neighbors across the country. Many of you have generously sent in donations to the family through NYTWA. We thank you for this kindness and ask for further support.

Amount: $

Please write in the memo, "Ahmed Sharif Family."

Checks and money orders can be made payable to, "Ahmed Sharif"
Mail to:
Ahmed Sharif
c/o New York Taxi Workers Alliance
250 Fifth Avenue, Suite 310
NY, NY 10001

We will deliver the monies immediately to the family as they come in and send you a receipt signed by Ahmed for acknowledgment. Thank you.

No More Ahmed Sharifs! Support Taxi Workers Struggle for Protection!
Join Ahmed and the countless other driver victims of violence on the job and call for the state to enact the Taxi Driver Protection Act! The bill was passed with overwhelming support in the NYS Assembly and Senate, and is now awaiting the signature of the Governor. Call on Speaker Silver to send the bill to the Governor's desk for signing and call on the Governor to sign NOW!

Runaway train on London Tube's Northern Line-The Cost Of Privatization Drive In Rail
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10964766
13 August 2010 Last updated at 10:43 ETShare this pageFacebookTwitterShareEmailPrint
Runaway train on London Tube's Northern Line

The train ran for nearly four miles before it stopped at Warren Street
A runaway train went through six stops on a 13-minute journey on London's Tube with other trains having to be cleared out of its path.

The engineering train became uncoupled as it was towed on the Northern Line near Archway station on Friday morning.

Passenger trains were diverted to another branch of the Northern Line while trains were cleared from the Charing Cross branch.

The train ran for nearly four miles before it stopped at Warren Street.

It came to a rest only because there is a slight incline at the station.

Pat Sikorski, assistant general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said he was "horrified" as it could have "very easily resulted in disaster". He said the union understood a collision with a passenger train "was only narrowly avoided".

The train was stopped by a "slight incline" at Warren Street station, London Underground director Richard Parry said.

UK RMT Tube workers vote to strike (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)
http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/wfnews/8325440.WALTHAM_FOREST__Tube_workers_vote_for_strike/

WALTHAM FOREST: Tube workers vote to strike
1:20pm Wednesday 11th August 2010

By Daniel Binns »

LONDON underground RMT members have voted to go on strike.

No date has been set for the industrial action, which has been called following a row over jobs and safety.

The union claims plans to reduce ticket station opening hours will put passenger safety at risk, and that 800 jobs could also be lost in further cuts.

The RMT says 76 per cent of its members voted to strike, but Transport for London (TfL) says less than a third did.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “RMT members have sent a clear message in this ballot that they will not sit by while the tracks are turned into a death trap and our tube stations and platforms are left unstaffed and at the mercy of muggers, vandals and other criminal elements.

“Boris Johnson cannot wash his hands of the crisis that is unfolding on London Underground on his watch. While his managers are ripping up the safety regulations the Mayor himself is ripping up his promises to Londoners on safe staffing levels and no amount of bluster can get him off that hook.

Fed-Up Flight Attendant for Jet Blue Lets Curses Fly, Then Makes Sliding Exit
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/nyregion/10attendant.html?_r=2&src=tptw
Fed-Up Flight Attendant Makes Sliding Exit
By ANDY NEWMAN and RAY RIVERA
Published: August 9, 2010
It has been a long time since flight attendant was a glamorous job title. The hours are long. Passengers with feelings of entitlement bump up against new no-frills policies. Babies scream. Security precautions grate but must be enforced. Airlines demand lightning-quick turnarounds, so attendants herd passengers and collect trash with the grim speed of an Indy pit crew. Everyone, it seems, is in a bad mood.

S
Yana Paskova for The New York Times
The home of Steven Slater, a JetBlue attendant, in Belle Harbor, Queens. He was arrested there after using a plane’s chute.
On Monday, on the tarmac at Kennedy International Airport, a JetBlue attendant named Steven Slater decided he had had enough, the authorities said.

After a dispute with a passenger who stood to fetch luggage too soon on a full flight just in from Pittsburgh, Mr. Slater, 38 and a career flight attendant, got on the public-address intercom and let loose a string of invective.

Women at Houston Port Win a Round in Potty Wars
http://www.labornotes.org/blogs/2010/08/women-houston-port-win-round-potty-wars
Women at Houston Port Win a Round in Potty Wars
by Andrea Gardner | Wed, 08/04/2010 - 11:14am

On the door it says “Women’s Room.” The lock is broken on the inside, so you walk in to a darkly painted, dimly lit room. The broken toilet seat is up and the bowl is full of urine from the last visitor who obviously was male. Rolls of toilet paper sit on the floor next to it. One wall is smeared with ancient dried feces, again today there is no soap, and the one cold water spigot drips in a grimy sink with old soap scum covering the wall next to it. There are no paper towels in the long-broken holder. The return vents in the ceiling are covered with years of grime. The ceiling tiles are pushed over and a steady drip from the air conditioning overflow makes the floor wet in front of the commode. The whole room reeks and is a bacterial nightmare.

What makes these conditions worse is the struggle just getting to a bathroom at all. Sometimes it takes a hike down a 60-foot gangway from a ship as long as a football field. Houston summers often get up to 100 or more degrees, and standing on steel or concrete makes it even hotter.

8 Reported Dead in Workplace Shooting At Teamster Organized Warehouse In Manchester CT
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/nyregion/04shooting.html?_r=1&hp
People were evacuated from Hartford Distributors in Manchester, Conn., on Tuesday after at least eight people were killed in a workplace shooting there.
By LIZ ROBBINS
Published: August 3, 2010

At least eight people are dead after an employee summoned for a disciplinary hearing opened fire at a beer distributor in Manchester, Conn., Tuesday morning, the police said.

Police were at the company, Hartford Distributors, trying to determine the total number of fatalities, and Lt. J. Paul Vance of theConnecticut State Police’s public information office said that one of the dead was the suspected gunman. “We do know that the suspect is deceased and there are several other fatalities at the facility,” Lieutenant Vance said.

He said that the suspect went on a rampage in the warehouse, then “probably” turned the gun on himself. “We’re still piecing a lot of it together now,” he said. According to Sgt. Sandy Ficara of the Manchester Police Department, “At least eight are dead, and we’re trying to make contact with some of the families now.”

YouTube - Australia Maritime Workers Memorial Service For Stephen Piper-3 Killed In Five Months
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s398J_R8Vws&feature=sub
MaritimeUnion | July 26, 2010
NSW Premier Kristina Keneally expressed deep sorrow over the death of wharfie Stephen Piper and the awful statistic of 3 deaths on Australian wharves in 5 months.
Filmed, edited and produced by Jamie McMechan Maritime Union Film Unit.

The Premier was visibly moved as Mich-Elle Myers read the email written by Fremantle wharfie Ash Huish, the message encapsulated in "No family should sit and wait at the end of the working day for a loved one who never returns". Ash's words were recited at every service around the country.

Unions leant their support headed by Unions NSW's Secretary Mark Lennon. Wharfies and their families held up banners with the faces of 8 workers killed on the wharves in less than 10 years. One of those bore the smiling face of Nick Fanos, crushed to death at Port Botany in April. Nick's sister Maria bravely held up his banner.

The Sydney service was repeated across the country, lead by the highly emotional and dignified funeral in the Boyd Chapel, Springvale in Melbourne. National Secretary Paddy Crumlin said that the church service was a celebration of the wonderful life of a loving dad and husband. "It was about family and friends from the wharves and all walks of life. They paid homage to the joyful and generous character that was Steven Piper", said Crumlin. A full service could not hold some 200 wharfies who gathered outside the church.

Aging Transit Systems Face Budget Crunch
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/us/25transit.html?_r=1&ref=us
Aging Transit Systems Face Budget Crunch

Luke Sharrett/The New York Times
A passenger waiting for a train last week in the late evening sun on the platform at Pennsylvania Station in Baltimore.
By YEGANEH JUNE TORBATI
Published: July 24, 2010

More riders, aging mass transit systems and inadequate money for maintenance and upgrades — a familiar story line for commuters and those faced with the task of keeping the trains running. What is new this summer is that the problems are making headlines again, in part because of an extended heat wave that has smothered so much of the country.

It would take $77.7 billion just to get the country’s public transit systems into shape, according to a report released last week by theFederal Transit Administration. By comparison, the report stated, the entire amount spent on rehabilitating and reinvesting in public transit nationwide in 2008 was $12 billion to $13 billion.

With luck, riders would not have to contemplate these numbers on a train ride like the June trip endured by about 900 people going from jobs in Washington to homes in Maryland. Just minutes after pulling out of Union Station, the train got stuck — and stayed stuck for more than two hours.

Staten Island bus lines to end this weekend amid NYC transit budget woes
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/06/staten_island_bus_lines_to_end.html
Staten Island bus lines to end this weekend amid NYC transit budget woes
Published: Friday, June 25, 2010, 10:33 AM Updated: Friday, June 25, 2010, 10:43 AM
Associated Press

NEW YORK -- It's the end of the line for some commuters using the country's largest public transportation system as New York City's transit agency grapples with an $800 million budget gap by cutting bus and subway service.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is slashing service lines this weekend, rerouting and reducing remaining services and adding frustration to the lives of millions of travelers.

The S60 bus line is going the way of the typewriter.
"What am I going to do, walk from Brooklyn to my office?" she asked.
Three disabled women sued today in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn, claiming the MTA cuts would limit their mobility. There are no handicapped-accessible subway stations in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst, where they live, attorney Sal Strazzullo said at a news conference.
"They do not have the ability to get to places in the city if the MTA goes through with these cuts," Strazzullo said.

6/10 NYC Transit Workers Rally-Rehire 260 Station Agents

June 10, 2010
Contact: Matthew Wing
212-669-4193/917-601-1572

PUBLIC ADVOCATE DE BLASIO
TO CALL ON MTA TO REHIRE STATION AGENTS

NEW YORK – Public Advocate Bill de Blasio will hold a rally with dozens of transit workers and straphanger advocates calling on the MTA to comply with a recent judicial ruling ordering the agency to rehire 260 station agents who were recently fired.

Several of the 260 station agents who were fired and are waiting to get their jobs back will speak at the rally.

Who:
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio
Recently fired station agents
Straphangers campaign representatives
Transit Workers

When: 12:00 PM, Thursday, June 10

Where: 80 Centre Street, (btw Leonard street and Worth Street) in front of The New York State of Supreme Court