Officer Counts Looming: TWU’s Top Slates Split Preliminaries

Officer Counts Looming
TWU's Top Slates Split Preliminaries

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

As the final week of voting for Transport Workers' Union Local 100 comes to a close, results from two local elections show the incumbent One Union slate engaged in a depot-by-depot battle with main challenger Rail and Bus United, with each side winning one race.

BARRY ROBERTS: Shows strength at 100th. Division 1 Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority members at the 100th St. Depot in Manhattan, and TA Surface members at the Jackie Gleason Depot in Brooklyn's Sunset Park voted Dec. 6 and 7 respectively in races to determine who would hold the chair, vice chair and recording secretary positions at each location.

Bang Zoom for 'One Union'

Three members affiliated with Local 100 President Roger Toussaint's One Union slate swept depot elections at Jackie Gleason, where 557 out of the station's 849 members voted, or 66 percent. A day earlier, three members running as part of the Rail and Bus United team headed by MaBSTOA division vice president Barry Roberts swept elections at the 100th St. depot, where 271 of the location's approximately 300 members voted, or 90 percent.

The voter turnout was higher than has traditionally been recorded for union-wide elections, which average just above 50 percent.

Ballots to determine who will fill Local 100's top three offices, its executive board slots and division vice president positions, among other jobs, are to be received by the American Arbitration Association no later than 8:30 a.m. Dec. 15.

According to the daily election log on Local 100's Web site, as this paper went to press Dec. 11, 18,511 ballots had already been received.

At a mass membership meeting held Dec. 9, approximately 1,000 members turned out. Among them were Mr. Roberts and two other presidential candidates, Ainsley Stewart, of Union Democracy and Mike Carrube of Fresh Start.

Pro-Toussaint Crowd

Mr. Roberts said he wasn't bothered by the fact that the meeting gave Mr. Toussaint a chance to address Local 100 members during the final week of voting. "I'm out here like any other transit worker, waiting to hear what the president has to say about why we have no contract," said Mr. Roberts. "Mass membership meetings are regularly held, and this is the normal time we have one."

Many of the transit workers milling around the entrance to Jacob Javits Center that afternoon were obvious Toussaint supporters. If they weren't wearing a badge labeled "staff," they wore pins that declared, "One Union."

The rank-and-file who turned out also appeared to favor the incumbent.

"Toussaint's going to win; he's the best leader the union has had in a long time," said a track worker with the Maintenance of Way Division. He and two colleagues, all from MOW, spoke on condition of anonymity. They said they approved of the steps Mr. Toussaint had taken to protect future hires from a new pension tier. "He's a trade-unionist," said one. "He's not in it for himself."

Two veteran workers from MaBSTOA, which is Mr. Roberts's base, said they weren't going to support the challenger. "I've known Barry for more than 10 years - I've worked with him and I like him," said one. "But I can't have someone representing me who doesn't open his mouth. I've been at meetings and Barry doesn't say a word."

His colleague chimed in: "Toussaint has the better head on his shoulders."

All the workers surveyed mentioned political infighting as a contributing factor in the union's current contract woes.

Each slate trumpeted its depot win as a harbinger of things to come. Similar elections were held at other stations around the city last week, but none of them had the same head-to-head competition between Rail and Bus United and One Union.

Voting Tallies

At the 100th St. Depot, workers elected RBU candidate Richard Bermudez as chair with 170 votes over One Union incumbent Jimmy Colon, who got 72 votes.

RBU vice chair candidate Kendrin Raymond defeated One Union candidate Wyetta Robertson-Oquendo, 184 votes to 86.

RBU candidate Dwayne Ruffin took the recording secretary position with 175 votes over the One Union candidate, Alex Borrero, who got 94 votes.

MaBSTOA depots also have a line steward position on the local ballot, which went to RBU candidate Andreaus Marcus with 179 votes, over One Union's Fernando Chillo, who got 91.

Members also cast votes for slates as well as for individuals. According to RBU spokesman Bob Liff, Rail and Bus United got 156 votes while the incumbent One Union slate got 72.

A Shuffle At Gleason

Results from the Jackie Gleason Depot elections were almost uniformly opposite.

Incumbent chair J.P. Patafio, running for division vice president on the One Union slate, gave up his current position.

The existing vice chair, Whitfield Gibson, also of One Union, ran for the chair position. He defeated RBU challenger Ronald Springer, 404 votes to 153.

Jackie Gleason also elected its first woman officer, voting One Union's Ramona Johnson into the vice chair position over RBU candidate Philip Alexander, who narrowly avoided disqualification by the Local 100 neutral elections monitor after submitting several pages of falsely-witnessed nominating signatures. Ms. Johnson got 348 votes to Mr. Alexander's 206.

In With the New

Joseph Mobley, a One Union member who's been a part of Local 100 for four years, defeated RBU candidate Kevin Hopkins, who's been at the Gleason Depot for 18 years.

There was no election for line steward because the position doesn't exist at TA depots.

As a slate, members gave One Union 299 votes and Rail and Bus United 138.