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MTA union official and conductor brawl in Bronx subway station: NYPD
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Feb 22, 2023
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By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Feb 22, 2023
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A transit union vice president and an activist MTA conductor have been arrested for brawling in a Bronx subway station amid a contentious internal dispute.
Canella Gomez, a vice president of rapid transit operations with the Transport Workers Union Local 100, and Tramell Thompson, a conductor and founder of a union splinter group, were both charged with assault following the melee inside the Bedford Park Boulevard station on Tuesday night.
An NYPD spokesperson said the men punched and kicked each other inside the station’s crew room after a verbal dispute turned physical. Thompson, 41, was hospitalized with injuries to his face and knee, according to a report from the MTA’s rail control center.
A spokesperson for the TWU Local 100 said Gomez was putting up union posters in the crew room when Thompson began cursing at him.
"Gomez was acting in self-defense, he was sucker punched, he responded to protect himself, and then he restrained Conductor Thompson and directed the police to be called," TWU Local 100 President Richard Davis said in a statement to Gothamist.
Thompson did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
Thompson often criticizes MTA management and the transit workers' union through the group he founded in 2016, Progressive Action. In a YouTube video posted last week, Thompson singled out Gomez, accusing him of spreading "misinformation" by urging workers not to kick passengers out of soiled subway cars without proper protective gear.
“No one can make you isolate a car without vomit in it,” Gomez said in footage featured in Thompson’s video. “We don’t want you isolating cars with any biowaste in it without the proper PPE.”
Thompson said Gomez was not pushing back strongly enough against management for “forcing” workers to clean soiled subway cars.
“Why isn’t the union holding the MTA accountable for asking us to perform these unsafe functions?” Thompson said.
Thompson previously gained attention for his opposition to the MTA's vaccine mandate, which earned him the support of former Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving.
The MTA declined comment.
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Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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