Management actions at New York transit unite workers

The situation at the Central Electronics shop of New York City Transit, located in Woodside Queens, under the yoke of a vicious anti-union management has reached a boiling point.

For some time the management at the Woodside facility has implemented a reign of terror on the workforce.

The main culprits are the top managers John Santamaria and Steve Krajewski and both seem to be extreme racist, anti-union elements. The latest and the most extreme anti-worker action is the arbitrary suspension for 20 days of the union section vice chair, Israel Roman, on trumped up charges —  all the accusations made by management are false. The suspension was implemented merely based on statements by management. The vice chair was never given a hearing to present his side of the issue.

On Feb. 25, management presented Roman with a stipulation delineating the false charges and mandating that he be suspended. They told him he had to sign the stipulation or be fired. Roman signed but made it clear that he was only signing to acknowledge receipt, not agreement.

Section Chair Norbert Caprietta, who had been given no prior warning of any of this, happened to be on hand.

There was an attempt made to get him to sign the stipulation but he refused to do so. By not signing the document he foiled a dirty plan.

Certain forces wanted to get Caprietta’s name on this outrageous document so that it could be used against him in the future. It is unknown who exactly collaborated with management in the production of this document because now nobody seems to want to take responsibility for doing so, but rest assured the workers and their allies will not rest until they are all brought to account for this outrage.

The thinking is that the vice chair was just the first victim and that management is similarly targeting more people, including an activist in the shop of Soviet background and a south Asian women who is in her 60s.

It is of the utmost importance that other labor organizations and progressive forces in general are informed as to what is going on here.

Please contact superintendents Peter Stratos and Archie Bogosian. The address of the Woodside shop is 33-33 54^th Street, Woodside, NY 11377. The phone number is 718-533-2727. The head of the TA is Carmen Bianco. His location is 2 Broadway, New York New York.

This attack on a union activist is a very bad thing but it has already resulted in a unity of the workers at the shop that has not been seen before. What’s more, with the continued support of the workers in the shop and with the mass support of the progressive community, the out-of-control management in this facility can finally be brought to heel and this negative can be changed to a positive.