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Toussaint a Model

Toussaint a Model

To the Editor:

I'm writing in response to the letter you printed from Richard Laurie, in the Jan. 13 edition, entitled "Toussaint Blew It." Laurie starts out his diatribe by stating, "Roger Toussaint is a grievous embarrassment to Transport Workers' Union Local 100."

I don't know what planet this guy lives on. I'm a DC 37 member and I admire Roger Toussaint's leadership of TWU 100 during the recent strike, in the face of sabotage by the TWU national leadership. This strike was the first major strike in this country in many years that victoriously set back the anti-union offensive of big business. It may be the harbinger of good things to come (finally!).

I'm all too painfully aware of four things:

(1) the punitive Taylor Law penalties, treating us like slaves, that take away our constitutional right to withhold our labor;

(2) the national right-wing, big-business attacks on unions and union contract benefits such as pensions and health care which have placed the union movement on the defensive; (3) the lack of unity amongst NYC unions; and

(4) that there is no Roger Toussaint "type" in the leadership of any of the other city unions.

The writer of the letter attacks the single 1.5-percent health benefit concession in the contract, cleverly leaving out the items that were won, while attacking Toussaint for an "uncompromising and absolutist attitude" in "provoking the tragic transit strike" without mentioning the real "uncompromising and absolutist attitude" and racist attitude of the MTA, Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki.

My question to Laurie: how was the TWU going to get a decent contract without a strike? Laurie doesn't even bother to mention the huge fines levied on the union during the strike. Laurie doesn't mention the many concessionary demands of the MTA prior to the strike, or that the MTA was forced by the strike to take the concessionary demands off the table. Nor does Laurie mention the media demands for jailing Toussaint and busting the union!

Laurie then goes on to say, "Why this incessantly repeated slogan of not selling out the unborn?" My District Council 37 contract, like many other union contracts, sells out the unborn. The union movement is supposed to work for tomorrow's worker as well as today's. Those workers that come after us should praise, not curse us.

Toussaint, in this contract, unlike leaders of other city unions, was able to defeat the MTA on this one. Broadbanding of titles was also defeated. Other city unions have had no such luck preventing broadbanding. The TWU won a paid holiday. When's the last time a city union increased the number of holidays in its contract?

The MTA demanded pension concessions but had to withdraw its demand. Instead of a pension concession, the TWU strike forced the MTA to agree to refund $8,000 to $14,000 from the pension plan to about 20,000 TWU members. The TWU won lifetime medical coverage and eliminated the prescription drug deductible for retirees. The TWU won subsidies for members attending school. I don't see a provision for that in my contract!

The MTA made a major concession when it agreed to reduce pre-disciplinary suspensions and was forced to agree to bring in an outside third party to review the MTA's disciplinary practices. The TWU won paid maternity leave for the first time. Every other city union should jump on this victory to demand that paid maternity leave be added to each and every city union contract. On top of the above victories, the 10.5-percent pay increase over 37 months is no small victory, under the currently difficult situation for labor unions.

Roger Toussaint's courageous leadership, in the face of draconian threats, is the type of defiant leadership so badly needed by labor all across the country! Every city union should unite with the TWU to demand a waiver of the fines imposed under the Taylor Law. This can be done! The 1966 agreement between Mike Quill and John Lindsay included a waiver of the fines imposed by Albany.

TWU members should concentrate their fire on how to get the Taylor Law eliminated. It isn't Roger Toussaint who has imposed the six-day pay penalty or threatened removing dues checkoff. These penalties are demanded by Wall Street investors, not by the poor and working-class communities in our city, which the TWU members are an integral part of.

Pending any fight to remove the fines, any Taylor Law fines imposed in the interim by Albany on TWU Local 100 should be made up for by an assessment by the Central Labor Council on each union in NYC. There are at least 1-1/2 million union members in NYC. It will only take an assessment of perhaps $3 on each of those union members' paychecks in order to make the TWU 100 "whole." It's a modest payment for a huge victory.

MIKE GIMBEL, First Vice President, Chapter 8, Civil Service Technical Guild