TWU deserves a cheer for fighting hard for – Latest News
The Transport Workers Union deserves actual props for going hard within the paint for a tiny portion of its membership: the under-attack-from-all-sides Central Park horse-carriage drivers.
We not often cheer for any union, since they’re too typically defending dangerous employees, threatening strikes for pie-in-the-sky raises or lobbying for dangerous insurance policies or added perks.
But within the case of the carriage drivers, who’re going through extinction because of opposition from animal-rights activists, Central Park management and progressive politicians, the TWU is doing precisely what a union must be doing: Pushing hard to protect stable jobs for employees who would in any other case have little energy.
Horse-carriage drivers have long had targets on their backs: Elitist special-interest teams like NYCLASS have been gunning for the traditional vacationer attraction for years, smearing carriage drivers (with scant proof) as horse-abusing monsters.
But the hassle to bully them out of existence has gained a lot of steam this previous yr; the City Council is eyeing a citywide ban, which Central Park Conservancy President Betsy Smith penned a letter supporting, ending park management’s neutrality on the difficulty.
TWU Local 100 has fought back hard, defending drivers to the media, debunking tales of horse mistreatment and launching a $1 million public-awareness marketing campaign (together with some adverts in The Post) towards Mayor Eric Adams for his govt order cracking down on the industry.
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And it polled Central Park guests, discovering that 57% favor protecting the carriages.
This is a battle TWU may have shirked: The roughly 300 horse-carriage drivers and house owners are a miniscule slice of the 44,000 employees the union reps.
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Tossing the drivers, many of them are immigrants or children of immigrants, to the wolves to save lots of a little political capital would have been an simple (although sleazy) selection.
And the union has taken critical heat for sticking by drivers — in response to its shaming of Adams, NYCLASS spokesperson Edita Birnkrant accused TWU of “blowing $1 million in workers’ hard-earned dues to attack the mayor for standing up against animal abuse.”
Uh, TWU is spending that money on precisely what it’s meant for: Defending the livelihoods of tons of of dues-paying employees who’re being unfairly vilified.
We’ve had a lot of disagreements with the TWU, and absolutely will again, however credit the place credit is due: When push got here to shove, it stepped up for the little man towards the elites.
If solely all union exercise was this cheer-worthy.
