The MTA Attacks TWU Local100 ,Transit Riders and Students

JOIN COUNCIL MEMBER CHARLES BARRON, TRANSIT WORKERS, RIDERS AND YOUTH TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 16, 2009 8:30 AM


TO PROTEST THE MTA'S ATTACK ON STUDENTS AND OTHERS


Wednesday, 8:30 AM at MTA Headquarters, 347 Madison Street , Bet 44th and 45th Street


As Wall Street prepares to lavish its bankers and traders with billions in year-end bonuses, the MTA is getting ready to worsen the economic crisis for millions of New Yorkers.

Why? To make sure bankers get their billion-dollar bonuses by paying off the monstrous debt service the MTA owes to the banks.

Don’t believe the media reports claiming that the raises – standard 3.5% and 4% annual increases – awarded to the transit workers on Friday are the cause of these outrageous cuts. To claim a crisis over $400 million – a pittance in comparison to the billions in bonuses going out to Wall Street even as we speak – is ridiculous. $30 billion in bonuses will be paid out among the top three banks alone. Trillions were handed out in bailout money.

In fact, it is the banks who are creating this crisis. The MTA is scrambling to pay its debt service to the long list of banks it owes money to, many of whom are collecting interest on loans whose principle was paid off long ago.

If anybody needs to “sacrifice,” it is these banks, who are bleeding public transportation and every other sector of society dry even as they kick people out of their homes and loot the treasury to cover their casino-gambling losses.

By re-introducing the “doomsday cuts” in a jobless recovery – cuts that were supposedly avoided mere months ago – the MTA has made it crystal clear that its role is to serve the rich at the expense of the riders. Its illegitimacy is obvious to all. The riders, transit workers, and all the people who make this city and its subway run are the only ones who can be trusted to make these decisions justly. Bail out the riders, not the banks!To stay informed about the MTA service cuts visit www.takebackourunion.org or www.BailOutPeople.org