New York, NY – NYC New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was greeted in Iowa by a blistering media
campaign calling him a phony progressive who fails to stand up for blue collar families and has a history of anti-union, anti-worker policies, said John Samuelsen, International President of the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU). The mayor appeared at a political event in Des Moines.The TWU campaign included a series of digital ads, billboards and a full-page newspaper ad in the Des Moines Register featuring a cartoon caricature of the mayor as “Phony Bill”: a $3 bill with a human face. The union represents more than 140,000 workers, including the approximately 43,000 bus and subway workers in NYC.
Samuelsen has previously criticized de Blasio for the unjust and anti-worker policy of arresting Bus Operators after non-negligent, non-criminal accidents; attacking the iconic Central Park horse carriage industry; and refusing to lift a finger to help subway riders enduring train breakdowns and delays during the 2017 “Summer of Hell.”
“This is an all granola, no-grit brand of phony progressivism and it will not benefit America’s working families,” Samuelsen said. “Mayor de Blasio is very quick to throw his so-called principles in the gutter when it’s politically expedient. He’s a situational progressive, and definitely not an ardent trade union supporter. De Blasio is as phony as a three-dollar bill!”
