NY transit workers union endorses Sanders

by Jesse Byrnes - 04/13/16 10:20 AM ET

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders on Wednesday picked up the endorsement of the New York transit workers union.

Sanders visited the union hall in Brooklyn to pick up the endorsement.

{mosads}”Brothers and sisters, there is no doubt that America needs a jolt, New York a jolt, working families need a jolt, and business-as-usual politics are not going to give us the jolt that we need,” union president John Samuelsen said in endorsing the Vermont senator.

Sanders thanked the union members for the endorsement, predicting again that he’d keep up his winning streak with a victory in New York on Tuesday.

“We all know in this room that you don’t have a great and growing middle class unless you have a great and growing trade union,” Sanders said.

Sanders said unions represented the “last lines of defense against a vicious corporate agenda that is working hard to destroy the middle class.”

He also touted his plans for infrastructure spending, dismissing those who view his $1 trillion spending proposal as untenable.

“Our infrastructure is crumbling,” Sanders insisted, mentioning roads, bridges and mass transportation, including the rail system in cities like New York.

“We need the best mass transportation system in the world. It is essential to our economy,” Sanders said, noting, “Millions of people in this city depend” on such a system.

“We need great mass transit systems; we need a great rail system; we’ve got to invest in those systems,” Sanders said.

Transport Workers Union Local 100, which says on its website that it represents 38,000 members and 26,000 retirees, makes its endorsement days before New York’s April 19 primary.

Sanders was critiqued by presidential rival Hillary Clinton after saying in an editorial board meeting with the New York Daily News that he thought the New York subway took tokens. He also said he hadn’t ridden the subway in about a year.

Clinton grabbed attention for repeatedly attempting to swipe her MetroCard without success trying to enter the subway during a media tour last week while campaigning in the state.

The Daily News endorsed Clinton earlier this week. Meanwhile, Sanders on Wednesday also picked up his first endorsement from a Senate colleague: Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

— Updated at 10:34 a.m.

Tags Bernie Sanders Hillary Clinton Jeff Merkley New York