{"id":260843,"date":"2025-09-28T08:32:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T08:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/260843\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T08:32:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T08:32:21","slug":"transit-union-endorses-cuomos-bid-for-mayor-rebukes-mamdanis-free-bus-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/260843\/","title":{"rendered":"Transit union endorses Cuomo&#8217;s bid for mayor, rebukes Mamdani&#8217;s free bus proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Governor Andrew Cuomo\u2019s campaign to become the next mayor of New York City recieved a boost on Saturday, when a union representing more than 20,000 local transit workers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/2025\/09\/25\/jim-walden-endorses-andrew-cuomo-weeks-after-dropping-out-of-mayoral-race\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">endorsed his candidacy<\/a> at an event on Staten Island.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Cassella, president of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atu726.com\/?zone=\/unionactive\/view_page.cfm&amp;page=About20Us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ATU Local 726<\/a> representing Staten Island bus operators and maintenance workers,\u00a0touted the former governors\u2019 \u201chistoric investments in buses and public transit,\u201d while rebuking his opponent, Democratic party nominee Zohran Mamdani, saying his proposal to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zohranfornyc.com\/platform\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">eliminate fares on city buses<\/a> will cost workers their jobs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFree fares undercut the very jobs of my members who operate and maintain our buses,\u201d Cassella said. \u201cA free bus proposal hurts Staten Island and hurts New York City. As we have learned in places like Kansas City, Austin, Tampa, Raleigh, and Tucson, free bus programs just don\u2019t work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a death spiral for safe quality public transportation,\u201d he said, adding that free buses \u201ccreate dangerous and unpleasant conditions for both workers and passengers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cassella also praised Cuomo\u2019s achievements as governor, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dot.ny.gov\/news\/press-releases\/2017\/2017-08-302\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">building a dedicated HOV lane<\/a> connecting the Staten Island Expressway to the Hugh Carey Tunnel in 2017, \u201csaving Staten Islanders 20 minutes a day, each way, every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAndrew Cuomo understands Staten Island better than all the other candidates combined,\u201d Cassella said. \u201cCuomo has always recognized the unique challenges facing our borough\u2019s transit system and is one of the rare elected officials to actually deliver for Staten Island riders and workers alike.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cuomo welcomed the union\u2019s endorsement, writing in a statement: \u201cI am deeply honored to receive the support of ATU International and Local 726. Transit workers are the backbone of this city: they keep New York moving. I\u2019ve always believed you don\u2019t expand transit by gimmicks or costly experiments; you expand it by investing in infrastructure, protecting union jobs, and building systems that last.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Originally Published: September 27, 2025 at 1:45 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Governor Andrew Cuomo\u2019s campaign to become the next mayor of New York City recieved a boost on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":260844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,2451,3059,5295,1370,728,405,403,5294,8989,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,5293,5341,80,9294,5321,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-260843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city","10":"tag-county","11":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-county","17":"tag-new-york-politics","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-newyork","20":"tag-newyorkcity","21":"tag-ny","22":"tag-nyc","23":"tag-nyc-crime","24":"tag-nyc-mayoral-election-2025","25":"tag-politics","26":"tag-staten-island","27":"tag-sub-county-region","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-united-states-of-america","30":"tag-unitedstates","31":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","32":"tag-us","33":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115280998824099296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}