{"id":666,"date":"2026-08-31T09:18:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T09:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=666"},"modified":"2026-08-31T09:18:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T09:18:30","slug":"john-samuelsen-and-the-art-of-strategic-petrol-bomb-throwing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=666","title":{"rendered":"John Samuelsen and the art of strategic petrol bomb-throwing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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John Samuelsen is always on. But in rare moments of downtime from organizing workers or traveling to organize workers, the Transport Workers Union international president likes to read.<\/p>\n

Read more AOC rejoined DSA this month after 7-year absence<\/a><\/p>\n

Currently, Samuelsen is reading \u201cSome Principles of Maritime Strategy,\u201d the 1911 treatise by British historian Julian Corbett. \u201cI\u2019ve read \u2018Art of War,\u2019 unlike every other freakin\u2019 union president that just doesn\u2019t put it on the bookshelf behind their Zoom background,\u201d he said over Turkish tea in southern Brooklyn, noting he\u2019s probably read the Sun Tzu strategy book at least 20 times. But Corbett\u2019s book on naval warfare is presenting him with new tactics to consider.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m applying that to all these political fights that I\u2019m in, where nothing is static. Everything\u2019s changing, and reading this book on maritime law strategy has really helped me,\u201d Samuelsen animatedly explained. \u201cIt\u2019s really wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Samuelsen finds himself in plenty of fights. The bombastic trade unionist is known for his pugilistic public persona and imposing physical presence. But he\u2019s also known to be basically the same guy in private as he is out on the streets. One labor operative described him as a \u201ccurmudgeon\u201d and a \u201ccrazy uncle.\u201d But those who have worked with him \u2013 and even against him \u2013 know Samuelsen isn\u2019t one to be ignored.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would be a chess master if he isn\u2019t already,\u201d said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Council to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He\u2019s always thinking five steps ahead, she said. That ostensibly applies to his seemingly quixotic \u2013 and increasingly personal \u2013 fights against the likes of Gov. Kathy Hochul, and New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and council members planning to ban horse carriages in Central Park. Many observers just don\u2019t see his vision \u2013 or worse, think he\u2019s completely lost the plot.<\/p>\n

But for Samuelsen, whose idols include the likes of TWU founder and labor icon Mike Quill and Irish radical James Connolly, the big, public and very old-school union fights are his bread and butter. While that style may be something of a dying breed in the evolving world of labor politics, Samuelsen\u2019s brand of union leadership appears to still be working for him. Unlike other leaders of major unions in New York, he hasn\u2019t faced a significant insurgent challenge, even after some setbacks.<\/p>\n

Despite his over-the-top insults, dogged protests and ads so audacious they border on satire, Samuelsen insists there is a well-thought out plan. \u201cI don\u2019t throw petrol bombs without seriously considering why I\u2019m throwing that petrol bomb, what my goal of throwing that petrol bomb is, what I\u2019m trying to accomplish, what the counterpunch is going to be (and) who\u2019s going to throw a petrol bomb back at me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPiss and vinegar\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Samuelsen came from a working-class, Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn, family with two union-member parents, that wasn\u2019t what instilled the union bug in him. And leading TWU Local 100 \u2013\u00a0let alone the roughly 165,000-member international union \u2013\u00a0isn\u2019t necessarily where the New York City subway track worker saw himself when he first started in 1993. But that\u2019s not to say he didn\u2019t envision his future before it happened. Samuelsen recalled his first day of training as a track worker, when TWU Local 100 representatives came to speak.<\/p>\n

\u201cI immediately thought to myself, \u2018These are the freakin\u2019 guys that are running this extremely impressive union? The vaunted Transport Workers Union Local 100?\u2019\u201d Samuselsen said. \u201cAnd I was looking at these guys. They were the most unimpressive crew of people, and I immediately thought to myself, \u2018I can beat these guys, and I can do a better job than them.\u2019\u201d He was in his mid-20s at the time.<\/p>\n

Track work is inherently dangerous \u2013 even more so when Samuelsen started in the \u201990s. \u201cI had to learn how to organize, and workers had to band together to prevent bosses from ordering us out \u2013 in the pursuit of production \u2013 and to work in unsafe conditions,\u201d he recalled. And he learned quickly \u2013 his and his fellow workers\u2019 \u201clives depended on it.\u201d And he realized he was good at it. \u201cAnd others realized I was good at it, and I got elected very quickly as a shop steward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

So began his ascent.<\/p>\n

Former state Sen. Diane Savino, a lifelong member of the labor movement who chaired her chamber\u2019s Labor Committee, first met Samuelsen when he was still a budding union leader at the turn of the century. She had enrolled in a Cornell University labor studies class to sharpen her organizing skills at the same time TWU Local 100 had sent some of its new officers to take the course \u2013 including Samuelsen.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was larger than life,\u201d Savino recounted. \u201cHe was filled with piss and vinegar then.\u201d In 2001, Samuelsen was a lower-level union officer who\u2019d recently joined leadership on an insurgent slate led by now-former TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint. The reform slate wanted to return to the ideals of Quill they felt the leadership didn\u2019t uphold. \u201cHe was quite a character then, (and) has been that same person ever since,\u201d Savino said. \u201cHe\u2019s just gone on further.\u201d<\/p>\n

That included challenging Toussaint for leadership of the local in 2009, and, after Toussaint dropped out of the race, Curtis Tate, Toussaint\u2019s hand-picked successor. Samuelsen came out victorious, and held the position until he won a full term as international president in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the contentious 2009 election, Samuelsen made a conscious decision to put an end to the union\u2019s warring factions. Tate told City & State they shared \u201ca mutual desire to see our local united and to advance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere never was any bad blood between John and I,\u201d he said. Now the union\u2019s international administrative vice president, Tate said he and Samuelsen maintain a close friendship and working partnership. \u201cWe actually kind of complement each other,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m a lot more laid back. \u2026 John is way more dynamic and animated \u2013 and sometimes I pull him back a little, so we balance each other out.\u201d<\/p>\n

That \u201cdynamic\u201d style of picking fights with management and duking it out in the court of public opinion has gained Samuelsen loyalty from his members. When then-Mayor Eric Adams backed the push to ban horse carriages last year, Samuelsen shared with City & State his text message to the mayor, calling him a \u201cbackstabber.\u201d It was followed with a $1 million ad campaign attacking the mayor. And Samuelsen relishes confronting bosses face-to-face, like when he threatened \u201cabsolutely vicious strike action\u201d during testy 2019 contract talks with American Airlines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know (MTA Chair and CEO) Janno (Lieber) doesn\u2019t appreciate his tactics, but look \u2013 to get people to go and protest in front of someone\u2019s home means that they will follow you anywhere,\u201d Daglian said, referring to coordinated protests of not just Lieber, but politicians as well. Hochul has also been greeted by an entourage of TWU protesters at transit-related events. \u201cI don\u2019t think he does anything on a whim when it comes to representing his members or taking care of the membership at large,\u201d Daglian said.<\/p>\n

Samuelsen has remained popular among members as he\u2019s racked up a number of wins over the years. Transit workers in New York City enjoy generous contracts that he helped negotiate. Membership has grown under Samuelsen\u2019s stewardship as well, from roughly 115,000 people about a decade ago to the 165,000 members now. Some of the newest workers to join the ranks are New York City Ferry workers.<\/p>\n

That loyalty extends even outside of Samuelsen\u2019s home base of TWU Local 100. He was welcomed with open arms for a photo shoot at the American Airlines terminal at LaGuardia Airport in August, where union workers gladly ferried him across the tarmac and provided him with access to a hangar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he was a weak president, you wouldn\u2019t want to be seen with him,\u201d said Victor Gonzalez, the TWU Local 501 president representing airline workers at several East Coast airports and San Juan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Horses and snakes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Samuelsen\u2019s evolution into the union leader he is today has included picking plenty of fights with politicians and bosses, and engaging in aggressive campaigns against them. But he insists they aren\u2019t personal. \u201cI fully embrace the concept that I criticize behavior,\u201d Samuelsen insisted. \u201cI don\u2019t criticize people. I don\u2019t dislike people. I dislike behavior.\u201d Hochul, however, seems to be an exception. Not five minutes into a 2 1\/2-hour sitdown interview, Samuelsen made the unusual accusation that the proud Irish American governor was actually Welsh.<\/p>\n

\u201cLoads of Welsh built the Erie Canal alongside the Irish, and I think she\u2019s mixed up,\u201d Samuelsen said. \u201cPlus, we don\u2019t want to have to claim her.\u201d (Per Hochul\u2019s office, her family arrived in America from Ireland well after the Erie Canal was completed.) Samuelsen also leans heavily on his Irish heritage, with family hailing from Derry (and yes, he has watched \u201cDerry Girls\u201d). He was even recently named next year\u2019s grand marshal for the New York City St. Patrick\u2019s Day Parade.<\/p>\n

Samuelsen has attacked Hochul\u2019s Irish-ness before. Twice now, the TWU has run St. Patrick\u2019s Day ads calling the governor a snake akin to those of legend driven out by St. Patrick. \u201cNow we wish St. Patrick would come back and rid New York of Governor Kathy Hochul,\u201d Samuelsen said in the ad that first ran amid a contract dispute in 2024 involving Metro-North Railroad workers, and ran a similar ad this year ahead of still-ongoing negotiations for a new contract for transit workers.<\/p>\n

Read more This week\u2019s biggest Winners & Losers<\/a><\/p>\n

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