Union big’s trains of thought
John Samuelsen knows transit from the ground up. A subway track worker by trade, he now serves as international president of the Transport Workers Union of America, the nation’s largest airline union, representing 165,000 transportation workers.
“I oversee 100 unions from coast to coast, including in the Caribbean,” Samuelsen said, noting the TWU’s reach across major transit hubs. Its ranks include about 30,000 workers at American Airlines, 34,000 at Southwest Airlines, and members in cities such as New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, including those who keep the cable cars moving.
His connection to New York transit began early. “My first time on a subway was at Avenue U and East 16th Street,” he recalled. “I was about 8.” Samuelsen attended Nazareth High School in East Flatbush, in the working-class Irish neighborhood of southern Brooklyn where he still lives today — at the same address where his father grew up. By 1993, he said, he had discovered a skill that would shape his career: “I found that I was a good organizer.”
Pricing stays fare
Asked why riding the subway has become so expensive — compared with the days when a fare could feel almost as old as George Washington’s presidency and cost just a nickel — Samuelsen pushed back on the premise.
“Time marches on,” he said, arguing that New York City’s fare remains relatively affordable when measured against other transit systems around the country. He pointed to costs in several European cities, as well as regional systems closer to home, including the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North and New Jersey Transit.
“Just think, you can get on the system in Coney Island and take it up to Yankee Stadium for a flat fee, $3. It’s not that much money. What can you do for three bucks? You can’t get a slice of pizza for three bucks in the city anymore.”
What do people misunderstand about the subway? Everybody complains about it.
“The problem’s the internet, Twitter, Instagram, cellphones, everything instantly available. Systems are under scrutiny that they weren’t years ago. Five transit workers a week get assaulted on average in NYC. If five schoolteachers were assaulted each week, there’d be massive societal steps to end that plague.”
So what’s going to happen with the new Second Avenue subway?
“Congestion pricing made funding available to continue to build it northbound. Money that the MTA, subway and bus riders never saw before. Huge casino money, congestion pricing money, and there should be a massive citywide discussion about that.”
Railing against AI
And AI might eventually replace transit workers?
“We are in a constant battle against artificial intelligence. There are postmodern urbanists right here that conspire every day to eliminate workers in the transit system and replace them with robotic elements.”
Another question on another topic. Air traffic control.
“The system definitely needs massive investment. They must hire more air traffic controllers. And increase their pay to a good salary in order to retain them.
“Lots of times disputes or desires of working people are about work-life balance. It’s about having appropriate time off to rest. It’s about being able to have a day off to celebrate a child’s birthday or a confirmation or a graduation. That is all part of having a desire not to let the bosses work us to death or work us into a divorce.
“And so it’s not always about wages, it’s about quality of life and about that all-important work-life balance.”
Listen, the high price of gas is forcing people to change their driving habits. Everybody’s trying to save money. Even street gangs. They’re now restricting themselves to jog-by shootings.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.